Wielder of the Omnitrix
by csgt
Summary: Futuristic AU. Ben Tennyson's life changes when he is dragged into a conflict involving the Omnitrix and the President of the Galactic Alliance. (This story is tailored by your choices. Pairings decided by polls. Ben x Harem)
1. Chapter 1

*** This story is tailored by your choices. At the end of every chapter, Ben (or another character) will have an important decision to make, and there will be a poll on my profile to decide. Pairings, friends, enemies, everything will be a result of your choices...**

* * *

**Bellwood, year 21XX**

Ben Tennyson struggled not to sleep as the teacher continued to tell the story that he and everyone else there already knew by heart.

"... One hundred years ago, no one would expect the human race to get this far. Wars, pollution, deforestation, global warming ..." The teacher's words were accompanied by three-dimensional holograms, popping up at each student's desk: soldiers shooting at each other, factories emitting dense clouds of smoke, trees being felled, huge ice caps melting ..." And finally we discovered that we were not alone in the universe ... " The holographic projection of a huge alien with an octopus-like head and red eyes appeared, surrounded by dozens of hideous monsters, "If we didn't kill ourselves first, Vilgax's armies would surely get the job done. None of us would be here today if it were not for ... "

Ben had already closed his eyes and fallen asleep when one of his classmates - Cash - poked him with a needle.

"President Kevin!" Ben woke up startled. He shot a death glare at Cash, who answered only with a mischievous grin.

"Congratulations, Mr. Tennyson," said the teacher with a smile, "President Kevin Levin saved us all. And how did he do that?"

"With the Omnitrix," Ben replied in a tedious voice.

"Exactly," in front of everyone popped up a three-dimensional hologram of a tall, strong man with long black hair, raising his left arm in the air. On his wrist was a device resembling a big red and black watch, with a stylized red K replacing the hour marker. "By a twist of fate, the Omnitrix crashed on Earth. Many tried to wield it, but it was designed by its creator so that only a worthy person could unleash its powers. Kevin Levin, and Kevin Levin only, is able to wield it. Along with the Plumbers - who at the time were only a small secret government agency - Kevin repelled the first horde of Vilgaxian forces off our planet. But he knew more would come. And we were not prepared."

Another hologram, Kevin wearing a crown with a drawing of Planet Earth in it, appeared. "We would never be ready with the kind of mentality that our leaders head. So, Kevin took the responsibility to lead us. He became the Perpetual President of our Planet, deposed tyrants all over the world, brought world peace and, for the first time in history, a true democracy."

The class saw holographic projections of several planets flick through in front of them, "So Kevin made a journey through the universe, seeking support from various alien races to build an army capable of resisting Vilgax. Our Plumbers became a powerful universal taskforce, and Kevin Levin quickly became President of the newly formed Galactic Alliance. And so..."

Fortunately for Ben, the bell rang, indicating the end of classes and the beginning of vacation. The 16-year-old ran outside, and, to his joy, saw Grandpa Max's RV - the Rust Bucket - at the school parking lot.

Ben got inside the vehicle quickly and ran to give his grandfather a hug, "Hi, Grandpa!"

"Hi, kiddo." Max ran his fingers through his grandson's hair.

Then Ben glanced at another passenger, his cousin Gwen. "Hi Dweeb." He smiled.

"Hi, Doofus." The redhead also smiled.

The two cousins stared at each other awkwardly for a few seconds. Ben stepped forward to give Gwen a hug but stopped halfway and bit his lips. Then Gwen walked over to him and hugged him. Once she did, he immediately put his arms around her and held her very tight.

No words were spoken, but both knew they were happy to have each other's company.

"Let's get this show on the road," Grandpa Max said, starting the vehicle.

* * *

There was a roadblock on the limits of Bellwood.

"Oh, crap, we're not going anywhere," Ben complained.

"Relax, Ben," Max said, "We have the whole vacation ahead of us. This will only delay us for a few minutes ... " Then Grandpa Max took a look at who was blocking the road and frowned. Men wearing helmets and black uniforms with a stylized red 'K' on the chest. "Weird. They are Plumbers. Why are members of the President's elite force on a simple roadblock in a small town? "

A few minutes later, Grandpa Max lowered the car window to talk to a Plumber who approached the vehicle.

"Good afternoon. I'm Maxwell Tennyson, a fellow plumber." Max smiled. He actually was a retired Plumber. "It's all in order here, you can check the solar energy panels, run my fingerprints on the sis-"

"Did you say Tennyson?" The Plumber interrupted him.

"Yes, why?" Max arched an eyebrow.

"We're looking for Gwendolyn Tennyson," the man replied.

Hearing that, Ben's heart pounded. If it was under different circumstances, he would laugh at it. He was the troublemaker who always got himself in trouble, and his cousin was miss perfect goody two shoes. The fact that she was wanted for something would be a reason for him to congratulate her, but this was different.

The role of the Plumbers was to eliminate any threats to the Galactic Alliance. Most of the time they faced Null-Void creatures and other Vilgax servants - a necessary and commendable job - but if the President or some of the higher ups decided that any particular civilian was a threat, a Plumber could kill that person in broad daylight without any consequences. Max always used to say that when he was drafted for the Plumbers, he was very happy to have only participated in missions against human-eating aliens and other monsters - these were very difficult battles, but at least he could sleep with a clean conscience that he had never killed anyone who didn't deserve it.

Ben gestured for Gwen to crouch on the floor so she would not be seen. "What did you do?" He whispered. In private, among friends and family, Gwen had often criticized the government. Ben was afraid that his cousin might have spoken ill of the President in public too.

"Nothing. I swear," she whispered back. Then she took a thin plastic card from her pocket and unfolded it, "Crap, my phone was on silent, and I didn't notice. Thirteen missed calls from my mom."

"Sir, there must be some mistake." Max was breaking out in a cold sweat. "My granddaughter is an exemplary citizen of the Galactic Alliance."

"She is. She definitely is," the Plumber said, "Don't worry. I'm sorry if I gave you the wrong impression. We're looking for her so she can be rewarded. We tried her house, but her parents informed her that she was leaving Bellwood with you, sir."

"Did you make this roadblock ... for her?" Max asked, still a little suspicious.

"It's very important that we take her to see President Kevin Levin," the Plumber replied.

* * *

A few minutes later, the teenage cousins and their grandfather were flying in a small ship, accompanied by Plumbers.

"They know about me," Gwen whispered, so that only Ben and Max could hear.

"That's impossible," Max answered in a matching voice tone.

"Why else would the President himself want to see me? They know," Gwen repeated as she lowered her head.

Gwen was a witch. She had always kept her powers a secret to avoid public exposure, and no one but her closest family knew about them. Until now.

* * *

They finally reached the **Capital City**: a giant spaceship hovering above the skies of New York, where President Kevin Levin lived with his court.

The team of Plumbers led Ben, Gwen, and Max into a huge, very luxurious mansion. In the main room there was a table with a delicious banquet for them. All the furnishings and ornaments were beautiful.

"Wait here, please. The President will come soon," a Plumber said before they left the Tennysons alone.

Half an hour later, the door opened, and President Kevin entered through it. He was a tall, strong man with a youthful appearance that certainly didn't match his actual age - over one hundred years old. On his left wrist was the red 'watch' with a stylized K symbol in the center. It was obvious that using the powers of the Omnitrix had consequences for him: he had very dark bags under his eyes, and although his long black hair disguised it a little, there seemed to be four strange little protuberances - horns? - in his head. Accompanying him was a beautiful young woman with silver hair and pinkish eyes.

"Wow," Kevin Levin said, in awe as he stared at Gwen, "You're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. And, no, I don't say that to every girl. My wife Charmcaster can confirm that, right dear?"

"Yes, my love!" the silver-haired girl - Charmcaster - said. Her enthusiasm seemed somewhat... fake... to Ben.

"Thank you so much for finding this precious jewel for me, my love." Kevin smiled at her.

"I'm always happy to make you happy, my dear," Charmcaster replied with a smile of her own.

"I believe you can already guess why you were brought here, right?" Kevin now addressed Gwen, "I want to marry you, Gwendolyn Tennyson."

"M-Mister P-President," Gwen said, taken completely by surprise, "I-It w-would c-certainly be a-an honor, b-but I really d-don't w-want to get married n-now, and you already have many wives and..." Gwen began to say.

"Call me Kevin, dear, not Mister President." His eyes sparkled with excitement, and that was not a good thing. "And my heart is always open. I understand that you are young and insecure, but don't worry. I guarantee that there is no man in the universe better for you than me. You'll be very happy by my side," Kevin grinned. He wasn't asking Gwen to marry him. He was _ordering_. "This mansion is my gift to you. Charmcaster suggested for me to bring all your family to live here and keep you company. I see your grandfather and cousin came along with you, and soon the rest will be brought here too. I really wish I could stay longer, but I have an emergency to handle. Being the protector of the galaxy has its disadvantages."

Before leaving, Kevin approached Gwen, pulled her close and captured her lips in a kiss. Ben saw an aura of blue energy - magic - glowing around Gwen and flowing from his cousin to the President. After a long kiss, when Kevin was satisfied, he let her go, took a deep breath and said, "I've never tasted anything that delicious in my entire life."

Gwen was weak, and it looked as she was about to fall, but Charmcaster quickly positioned herself next to the redhead and helped her remain standing.

Kevin had hurt Gwen. Ben felt his blood boil. He stared at a sharp knife at the banquet table. His first instinct was to grab that knife and slice Kevin's throat with it. Max realized his intentions, gripped his wrist firmly, and shook his head in a negative gesture.

That wouldn't do any good anyway. Kevin Levin had died before, _nine times_. And, somehow, some way, he always came back. Even if Ben were lucky enough to catch Kevin off guard and actually slit his throat, surely Kevin would come back from the dead once again.

"Gwendolyn, Charmcaster will stay here and answer any questions you might have. I'll be back in a few days for our wedding," Kevin Levin excused himself and left Gwen, Ben and Max alone with Charmcaster.

After a few seconds of silence, Charmcaster, with Gwen still leaning on her, began to speak, "Kevin consumes energy - and magical energy is his second favorite dish. That's why he has a harem, all witches like the two of us. We have what he likes, and I'm not just talking about a beautiful body… He drains us. It's painful and it's awful. Red, it's pretty obvious you don't want to marry him, and I don't want to stay married to this monster either. We can help each other. I have a plan."

Grandpa Max stepped forward with a scowl on his face, "He thanked you for bringing my granddaughter to him. I don't know how, but you're responsible for her being in this predicament. And now you say you want to help? You're a liar. We won't trust you. Just go away." Grandpa Max pulled Gwen away from Charmcaster and kept his arm stretched for his granddaughter to lean on him instead of her.

The enchantress bit her lip and lowered her head. "I'll be completely honest with you. Yeah, it's my fault that Red is here. But I never wanted her to get hurt. And I guarantee Kevin will not touch her again if we follow my plan. I'm sorry, but there was no other way... I had to bring you, Ben, here. You're the only one who can take the Omnitrix off Kevin's hands and save us."

Ben laughed. "Do you think I can simply take that thing off Kevin Levin's wrist?"

"I didn't mean literally. That thing on his wrist is not the real Omnitrix. That's just for show. It's a fake. A 'K' is a little bit too obvious, don't you think? The real Omnitrix can only be wielded by someone worthy, and Kevin Levin obviously isn't," Charmcaster replied.

"And what about all the videos with Kevin turning into various aliens, and aliens' amalgams, are they all fake too?" Ben folded his arms. "How does he do all of that if he's not wielding the Omnitrix?"

"Energy," Gwen said, now recovered, at least enough to stand on her own feet without help. "He drains the energy from the Omnitrix."

"You're smart, Red," Charmcaster said, "Before, I said that magical energy is Kevin's second favorite dish. The first one is the Omnitrix. The real Omnitrix is being kept here. Kevin can't wield it, but he can drain energy from it regularly, so it's like if he were wielding it. But if we steal the Omnitrix, he will lose his main source of power and after a while he will be vulnerable. Ben, I can put you safely inside the room where the Omnitrix is being kept. You can get it out of there and then we flee from this place. I have everything arranged."

"If I can steal the Omnitrix, you can do it too. Or anyone else," Ben arched an eyebrow.

Charmcaster sighed, "Kevin thrust the Omnitrix into a very dense metal structure. The only way to get the Omnitrix out of that room is by putting it on. And only someone worthy can do that."

"I'm not worthy. If that's really the criteria, my cousin or my grandfather would be much more likely to make that thing work rather than me." Ben took a step back.

"It's you. I know it's you," Charmcaster said with certainty.

"You don't even know me. We've never met before today. Why do you think I can make the Omnitrix work?" Ben asked as he eyed Charmcaster suspiciously.

Charmcaster was silent for a moment and then said, "I didn't know your cousin either, but I told the President that she was a witch, and she is. I know stuff. Trust me, the Omnitrix will work for you. I know it will."

"I've met witches before," Grandpa Max interjected, with crossed arms and a frown on his face, "You saw the future, didn't you? Or at least, you think you did. "

"Maybe," Charmcaster took a step back.

"It was blood magic. You made a fire. You poured tons of fresh blood into the fire. Then you saw things," Max said in an accusing tone.

"I didn't find out about the Omnitrix through visions," Charmcaster lowered her voice, "I always try to get Kevin drunk when we're together. Keep him busy drunk with alcohol so he doesn't get drunk with my magic... Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't." It was clear that those were painful memories for the girl, "One of these times, he started to babble all about the Omnitrix. Fortunately, he was too drunk to even remember he said anything later, because otherwise I believe he would have killed me to keep the secret..."

"I'm really sorry you had to marry such a man," Gwen said sincerely.

"Then I managed to get to the place where the Omnitrix is being kept myself," Charmcaster continued, "I tried to convince the Omnitrix's stupid AI that it was already being misused, and I was at least the lesser evil, but it still didn't let me wield it. So, I began to use magic to try to find out who could wield it, and I had visions of Ben wielding the Omnitrix with his witch cousin by his side. And I don't regret killing some prisoners guilty of terrible crimes to perform blood magic rituals for that. That's why I had to bring your family into this. I know this is a low move, but I needed Ben's help, and there was no other way he would risk himself to face the President's wrath, except if he had to do it to protect his cousin. That's why I told Kevin about you, Red. I'm sorry."

"I'm not happy about it, but I can understand why you did the things you did." Gwen placed a hand on Charmcaster's shoulder. "You just want to escape this nightmare.

Charmcaster laughed. "Oh, but I don't want _just_ that. I've never had a good life. My parents died when I was very small. I became a criminal, a thief. I was arrested. I was taken out of jail by the President to join his harem, and I thought things were finally going to get better. I was a delinquent orphan who got out of jail to become one of the Ladies of the President of the Galactic Alliance. Power, respect, luxury, subjects, everything I wanted. It would have been perfect, but then Kevin, that bastard, starts hurting me, draining me... All I want is something different for my life. Something better. It will be perfect, with Ben in his place."

"And to think I was beginning to feel sympathy for you." Gwen took her hand away from Charmcaster's shoulder.

Charmcaster took a step toward Ben, "You will be a great man." She smiled as she placed her hands on his cheeks. "I know it doesn't look like it now, but I can help you in many ways." She took Ben by surprise and brushed her lips against his.

"What do you think you're doing?" An enraged Gwen pushed Charmcaster away from her cousin.

Charmcaster just smiled. "When Ben has defeated Kevin Levin and taken over his place as the President of the Galactic Alliance, he will need a wife to help him rule. I know how things work."

"No way!" Gwen exclaimed, "I will not avoid marrying a monster just to let my cousin marry a snake!"

"I'm not going to betray you." Charmcaster raised a hand as if taking an oath. "Of course, words can be empty. So, I propose a magic oath. Mr. Tennyson." She looked at Grandpa Max. "You're familiar with witches, so I guess you know how this works?"

"A deal where both parties are magically compelled to do everything they promised." Max frowned.

"Exactly," Charmcaster said, "so you can be absolutely sure that I'm not lying, and that I will never betray Ben." Charmcaster took a piece of paper and a pencil from a pocket of her magenta coat - things one could only see in museums: paper, pen and pencil had been completely replaced by digital annotations, more ecologically sustainable. The enchantress wrote down a few words and then handed the sheet and pencil to Ben. "These are my terms. Now write yours and let us seal the deal."

Max pulled Ben and Gwen aside, "We can't trust her and we don't need her. We just run. We'll take down some Plumbers, steal a ship and go. Even if she herself believes in everything she's telling us, we still can't believe her, because magical visions are not accurate at all. She may very well be wrong."

"No," Gwen replied, "The city is full of Plumbers, and none of us know this place. Trying to escape blindly would be very risky. I don't want you two dying for me. Charmcaster knows the place and the people. She is our best chance to get out of here safely, regardless of magical visions," then she addressed Ben, "What we need to do is to find a loophole in this contract. Can you agree to marry her and then, like, get a divorce five minutes later?"

"No," Ben said as he read the paper. "No right to divorce or separation. I can't harm her in any way, and I have to do my best to protect her. She allows me to have other wives, but I must 'satisfy' her whenever she wants."

"What? Is that really written there?" Gwen asked in surprise.

"Yeah!" Ben handed the paper over to her.

"Damn it," Gwen said as she read it, "Wait ... I have an idea ... We have Charmcaster's handwriting and fingerprints all over this paper. This is concrete proof that she's plotting to betray the President... And we're going to tell that to him... unless she helps us steal the Omnitrix and get out of here."

"You mean, you want to blackmail Charmcaster and force her into helping us?" Ben was taken aback by the idea.

"She brought me here, and she is now blackmailing you... No honor among thieves," Gwen said hesitantly, "I don't like it either, but it's either this, or accepting her terms, or I marry the President who will drain me like a battery every night."

"This last alternative is not an option," Ben said determined.

* * *

*** Now it's your turn to decide:**

**1) Ben should blackmail Charmcaster and force her to help.**

**2) Ben should make the deal with Charmcaster.**

**Please visit my profile and vote on the poll there (the poll will be up for ten days, in case of a tie or if there are no votes, I will choose an option myself) **

*** Thank you very much for reading this fic :)**

*** Thanks to Aurora Nightstar for beta reading. English is not my first language, any mistakes are my own.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Notes**

*** Final results from the last poll: ****Make the deal with Charmcaster: 31 votes. ****Blackmail Charmcaster and force her to help: 6 votes.**

*** If you're on mobile, you will have to find the "Desktop Mode" option at the bottom of the screen, then you will be able to find the poll. At the end of this chapter, we will have another poll.**

*** I understand that some readers have concerns about a Ben x Charmcaster relationship being forced by a magical contract. There's a reason for that: I didn't want to make Charmcaster too good too early; at this point she's a sympathetic villain, and for now her interest in Ben is mainly political. But that's just the beginning, not the end.**

*** Initially, I only referred to Ben and Gwen as 'teenagers' in the previous chapter. Some readers pointed out that it was too ambiguous, so I edited the chapter and stated their ages as 16.**

* * *

After thinking for a while, Ben finally gave his answer, "I'm going to take the oath with Charmcaster."

Gwen rolled her eyes, "I know she's pretty, Doofus, but try not to think with the wrong head here, please."

"What? N-No..." Ben stammered as he glanced toward the silver-haired enchantress, "I-I m-mean, I-I'm n-not going to deny that she's beautiful, but it's not what you're thinking. Read some of the things she asked for in the contract: a full presidential pardon for any crimes committed, administration of magical artifacts in possession of the Galactic Alliance, maintenance of all the current rights and privileges she has as a Lady, blah blah blah... She thinks I'll be the new President, but when she realizes it won't happen, she won't even want to stay with me anymore. I can't give her what I don't have. Everything will work out. I don't need to blackmail her."

"Have you ever thought that if you actually put on the Omnitrix, you might end up as the ruler, whether you want it or not?" Gwen folded her arms.

"Don't worry." Ben smiled. "I have a plan."

Gwen sighed. "Okay, but if your plan fails, we better have a good contract to make sure Charmcaster can't do anything too bad."

For a few minutes Gwen made some remarks and Ben wrote them down on the paper.

"Just out of curiosity, how exactly does a person who breaks an oath die?" Ben asked Charmcaster.

"The person's blood boils. Literally. It takes a few hours to die, and it's pretty painful," she replied.

"Glad I'm a man of my word." Ben gulped and then he handed the paper over to Charmcaster. "These are my terms."

"You mean, your cousin's terms, right? I am sure that this contract here is at best 10% yours and 90% hers." Charmcaster smirked. "Blah, blah, blah, I can't be a participant or accomplice of any action with a goal to cause harm to you or to any of your family and friends, agreed... Blah, blah, blah, Wait a minute, I can't kill or order anyone's death except in self-defense or in defense of another person? I don't agree with that. Let's say I have an opportunity to kill Kevin 10th in a way that would be considered murder, wouldn't it be worth it?"

"He seems to have an infinite lives hack, so it wouldn't matter anyway." Ben shrugged.

"Let's say someone else, just as bad as Kevin." Charmcaster replied.

"You've already asked Ben to protect you, and if he becomes President, he's gonna have to give you a presidential pardon. My cousin can't promise to do these things unless you promise yourself not to commit murders anymore," and then Gwen added in an ironic tone, "Forgive us if we don't fully trust your morality to decide who gets the axe."

"What are you? His lawyer?" Charmcaster sighed, "So let Ben be the judge then. I can't kill or order anyone's death except in self-defense or in defense of another person or if Ben authorizes it."

"Fair." Ben took the pencil again and added the last part.

"Thank you," Charmcaster said in an ironic tone, visibly dissatisfied. She took the paper again and finished reading, "Blah, blah, blah ... And if I get involved with another man, I'm forced to terminate this contract. The End. Ok, I accept your terms."

The last condition had been Ben's own idea. Gwen looked surprised that Charmcaster accepted it easily, "You said that Ben could have other wives. I thought you wanted an open relationship."

"Oh, I was thinking that he might need to make political alliances through marriages with alien princesses, things like that. I didn't want to risk being too selfish and ruin governability." Charmcaster shrugged, "I've never planned on having other men, and I hope to convince Ben that I'm the only girl he really wants."

Gwen folded her arms. "And I hope my cousin isn't stupid enough to fall in love with you for real."

"Jealous? Will I have competition coming from unexpected places?" Charmcaster asked, looking at Gwen with a wicked grin.

"What do you mean?" Gwen blushed redder than a tomato. "Actually, I don't want to know."

"Do we take this oath or not?" Ben asked, visibly uncomfortable.

"Mr. Tennyson, please stay at the window and watch. If a guard comes to check up on us, let us know," Charmcaster said to Max, who nodded in agreement. Then she fixed her ponytail, straightened her magenta coat and stepped closer to Ben, "Hold my hands. I'll speak the magic words and we seal the deal with a kiss."

Ben took a deep breath and took Charmcaster's hands in his as she began to utter words in a language Ben didn't understand. The paper of the contract floated around them, enveloped by a green and magenta aura.

_"That's for real. I'm kind of getting engaged. Charmcaster is beautiful, but I don't even know her real name..." _Ben thought, a little nervous.

When the silver-haired girl finished reciting the words of the spell, she inclined her head toward Ben for the final kiss. With their hands clasped, they kissed in what started as a timid and awkward kiss, but the magic in the air - literally - moved Ben and Charmcaster to irrationally attack each other's tongues in a full make out session that only ended when they both ran out of air.

The paper of the contract dissolved in the air, and Ben felt he was breathing in the very particles. The same was happening with Charmcaster.

"It's done." Charmcaster smiled. "Oh, and my real name is Hope."

"Ewww!" Gwen was covering her face with her hands. "That was disgusting. Was the kiss really necessary? "

"Not really, but I thought it would be nice. And it was." Charmcaster laughed. "Let's get to business. I'll tell Ben how to get to the Omnitrix." She took a small plastic card out of her pocket, slid her finger on it, and a three-dimensional hologram map popped up. "You're going inside this air vent there and crawl for a while. That will get you into the depths of this city-spaceship. Then you get to this room." She pointed at a particular room.

"Hey, but the map says this is a garbage incinerator," Ben said.

"Trust me, it's not," Charmcaster replied, "I literally can't send you into a trap. If I were trying to do that, I'd be in a lot of pain right now."

"That's not quite true," Gwen argued, "The oath guarantees that you _sincerely believe_ this will work, but it doesn't mean that it will _actually_ work... I may not be a very experienced witch, but I know a magical oath has no power over the infinite variables of the real world, only about the _intentions_ of the people involved in it. Ben could even die, but if you never intended it to happen, you're not breaking the oath."

"Anyway, we need to plan our next move," Grandpa Max said, "The first thing is how to get out of this mansion. I doubt we can get past the Plumbers watching outside, there are Tetramands, Vaxasaurians, and a few others of different species... "

"They're part of the Ladies' Guard," Charmcaster said, "Do you know that the kings of the past used eunuchs to watch over their harems? To watch his Ladies, the President uses aliens whose species don't consider human females to be attractive. It works the same way, without the need for castration. But don't worry, they're here to watch me and Red; you and Ben can do whatever you want."

"OK. Ben, you go after the Omnitrix while I take the rest of our family to safety. Kevin 10th will want to either kill them for revenge or use them as bait to lure you into a trap after we take Gwen and Charmcaster out from here, and I won't allow that."

"Good thinking, Grandpa," Ben said.

"Good luck, Ben. Good luck, Grandpa." Gwen hugged them both.

"I say the same," Charmcaster smirked, "Good luck, Ben and good luck, Grandpa. Now that me and your grandson are kind of engaged, I can call you grandpa too, right?" She said with a wicked grin.

Max just stared at the silver-haired enchantress and left without giving her an answer.

* * *

With Charmcaster's map in hand, along with other necessary tools, Ben crawled a long time through the air vents. Packed like sardines, the boy felt pain all over his body. But eventually he came to the room he was looking for, the place where supposedly garbage was to be incinerated. Ben got out of the vents, relieved that he could finally stretch his limbs again.

There was a metal column in the room with a hole in the middle. "It's all or nothing." Ben put his left hand inside the hole at once and hoped it wasn't going to be incinerated.

He felt his hand touching something and got stuck. The room was empty when he came in, but now suddenly there was a little alien who looked like a grey skinned biped frog - a Galvan. There were small tendrils around his mouth that looked like a beard.

"_Hello, Benjamin Kirby Tennyson. I'm Azmuth,"_ the alien said.

"Where did you come from? And how do you know my name?" Ben asked in amazement, still with his hand stuck.

_"I'm not the real Azmuth."_ The alien smiled. _"I'm an artificial intelligence designed by Azmuth, the creator of the Omnitrix, to prevent anyone unworthy from wielding this device. The moment you touched it, I connected to your mind. And I'd like to know why you think you're worthy of wielding the Omnitrix."_

"I'm not," Ben answered abruptly.

_"I agree with you." _Azmuth nodded. _"And I see that this man, Kevin, has found a breach to abuse the powers of the Omnitrix. But you should know, the Wielder of the Omnitrix could potentially become even more powerful than Kevin is right now, therefore an even greater threat to the galaxy. Although I see in your mind that defeating Kevin is a noble cause, I'm afraid I can't give the Omnitrix to you based solely on that, unfortunately."_ The alien eyed Ben with a look of apology and sympathy.

"I'm only here because someone said I'm supposed to wield the Omnitrix, but I don't want it!" Ben replied, "You shouldn't give the Omnitrix to me. Actually, you shouldn't give the Omnitrix to anyone. But even if you don't, people will still find breaches to use it. Kevin did. And maybe, who knows, someday someone else will be able to hack it, and wield it while being unworthy. The truth is you shouldn't have created this thing! I want to fix your mistake... I don't want to wield the Omnitrix. I want to destroy it."

_"Your heartbeat, your thoughts, I see sincerity in you." _Azmuth smiled. _"I believe the Omnitrix can be used for good, an instrument to unite the species. And I believe that the Omnitrix is also a necessary evil, a weapon to protect the galaxy from dangers that you still haven't seen. But I also believe that the best person to wield the Omnitrix is someone who sincerely believes it is too dangerous to exist. It's yours now."_

Ben felt that whatever he was holding before wrapped itself around his wrist. Then Ben could finally move his arm again. Now on his left wrist there was a watch-like device, but unlike Kevin's that had a red K in the center, his had something that resembled a green hourglass shape.

"Hey, Azmuth, how can I destroy this thing?" Ben asked, "I meant it when I said it before!"

Ben's question remained unanswered because "Azmuth" disappeared.

* * *

After making the arduous way back through the same air vents he had come from, Ben found his hoverboard was exactly where he'd left it. After covering the Omnitrix on his wrist with a jacket, Ben jumped on the hoverboard and flew away.

A few minutes later, Ben was back at the mansion. When he left earlier, there were some Ladies' Guards watching outside, but now, to Ben's astonishment, there were at least four or five times more guards than before.

A Tetramand prevented Ben from entering, "Get out of here."

Before Ben could respond, another Plumber - a Vaxasaurian, who was already there before Ben left - intervened, "This is the cousin of the President's new Lady. He lives in this mansion now."

The Tetramand grunted and stared at Ben. "Ok, you can come in. But if you even think about touching any of the President's Ladies, things will not end well."

"Of course, I would never disrespect our President," Ben said trying to keep a straight face as he thought, _"Better not to mention my make out session with Charmcaster earlier."_

After he entered the mansion, Gwen latched herself onto Ben's neck in a hug, "Doofus, why did you take so long? I was very worried."

"I never doubted you would make it." Charmcaster smiled.

"I'll tell you girls everything later, but I have the Omnitrix now." Then Ben realized there were three other women in the mansion. "Who are they?"

"Other witches and President's Ladies. They will also escape with us. They are friends of Charmcaster, but at least none of them are interested in taking a magic oath to marry the Wielder of the Omnitrix. I don't know if you consider that good news or bad news, Doofus," Gwen said in a tone of irony.

"That was the first thing Red asked them," Charmcaster smirked, "I get the feeling that she is trying to mark the territory..."

"Actually, the first thing I asked, Charmcaster, was what they had to give you in exchange for you to help them escape," Gwen snapped, "They said nothing, but I still doubt you decided to save them out of the kindness of your heart. The President has other Ladies, and I'm sure there's a reason why you brought those specific three."

Charmcaster's expression turned serious. "I brought only these three because they are the only ones I trusted enough to tell them the plan and who weren't afraid to try to escape. And what I get from it is a clean conscience that I tried to help. I don't want other women to continue being drained by an energy junkie mutant like I was. "

Ben felt sincerity in Charmcaster's words. She could be an altruistic person ... at least sometimes.

"I'm sorry..." Gwen began to say.

"No need to apologize, Red. If I were you, I wouldn't trust me either." Charmcaster winked at Gwen. "Well, I also made things more complicated for us. There are a lot of Ladies' Guards out there whose job is to check up on us every hour. To escape, we need to get rid of them first. So, I ordered a feast." Charmcaster pointed at a table full of food. "And I prepared a special magic spice just for the occasion." The witch took a vial out of her pocket. "A magical poison. I'll put that in the food and invite the guards to eat with us. When I say the magic words, they'll all die - don't worry, we'll take an antidote before to nullify the effect on us - and if all goes well, we'll have a few hours before the next shift and when they find out what happened we will already be gone."

"Killing looks pretty extreme." Gwen expressed her concerns. "Let's just put them to sleep instead."

"There are many different aliens with different biologies. I have a potion that could put them to sleep, but I don't know how long the effect will last for each one - it can be a day or ten minutes, it depends on the resistance of the organism of each species. I've got a perfect escape route for us, but we'll need a few hours to cross the city without being seen and get to the hangar where a ship is waiting for us. If one of the guards wakes up before we're gone, the whole city will be looking for us, and, sure enough, the hangar will be filled with Plumbers. It will be almost impossible to escape if that happens," Charmcaster argued.

Ben scratched his head. "We just have to find a way to escape faster. Or to keep the guards contained long enough. This watch must have some alien that can help solve this..."

Before Ben could put his hand on the watch, Gwen grabbed his arm, "Don't even think about it! You have no idea how this thing works. You need a quiet place to train and get used to it, discover your limitations and skills. If you use it now and make the slightest mistake, we'll all be lost."

"Right. Let's use the sleeping potion then. We don't even know which of these guards are volunteers here, and which were drafted into service, like my grandfather. The idea of killing all of them, especially when we have another option, isn't right," Ben said.

Charmcaster disagreed, "The other option might result in my death, or Gwen's death, or one of these three innocent girls' death, or all of us. The risk is not worth it! Besides, do you think the President is going to award a prize to the guards who let his Ladies escape? They're already dead, one way or the other." She shrugged. "If you hadn't put that ridiculous condition on the contract, I'd use the poison and let you think it was just a sleeping potion. That way you'd have a clean conscience, but now I need your permission, Ben..."

* * *

**The decision is yours, dear reader. How should Ben deal with the Ladies' Guards?**

**1) Kill them.**

**2) Put them to sleep.**

*** Please, go to my profile and vote on the poll there. Same rules as the previous one (ten days to vote and in case of a draw or if there are no votes, I will make a decision myself) **


	3. Chapter 3

*** Results from last poll: The option "Put them to sleep" had 30 votes while the option "Kill them" had 11 votes. **

*** Some readers might notice I replaced Lucy with Looma in the character tags. I still have a storyline planned for Lucy, but Looma is going to show up first (spoiler: very soon), so her name gets the tag, at least for now.**

* * *

"We are not killing anyone unless there is really no other way. We put them to sleep," Ben said.

Charmcaster threw her arms up in defeat, upset about Ben's decision, "Fine. Let's do it your way and hope we don't die."

Gwen, however, smiled. "I'm really proud of you, cuz. This isn't an easy call, but it's the right one."

Charmcaster quickly introduced Ben to the other witches who would be tagging along. Two of them were sisters: the older one, a blonde named Eliza, was the same age as Charmcaster, and the younger one, a brunette named Adrianna, was the same age as Ben and Gwen. And the third witch was a dark-skinned girl named Stacy. All three of them were extremely beautiful, but it came as no surprise, since Ben had a feeling Kevin wouldn't pick an ugly woman to join his harem. Gwen and Charmcaster were stunning as well.

Ben and the girls drank a liquid that tasted horrible - almost as bad as Grandpa Max's vitamin drinks - but necessary to counter the effects of the sleeping potion. A few minutes later when some guards came to check up on them, the girls invited them to eat the banquet. They happily accepted, and the others who were outside were invited to sit at the table too. The guards laughed and joked, and one of them, a Tetramand, thanked the girls for the "best meal he had ever had." Ben felt extremely relieved that he wasn't killing them.

After everybody had eaten enough, Charmcaster snapped her fingers and whispered "_Altum Somnum_". The guards immediately fell asleep. "Let's destroy their communicators before we go," the silver-haired enchantress said as she grabbed her weird bag that had a mouth-like zipper and eye-like buttons, "It might buy us a few minutes after they wake up."

Ben activated a holo-messenger device and said, _"You are only alive now because we let you live. Kevin won't show this same kind of mercy. He will execute you for your failure. Leave this place as soon as possible and survive." _He then left the device on the table for the guards to find when they were to wake up.

* * *

One hour later, the six were still walking through the spaceship-city sewer structure.

"Can we at least slow down for a few minutes?" Adrianna asked, panting heavily, "this long walk at this pace is making me really tired."

"Kevin was with us last night," Eliza said with anger in her voice, "My sister and I are drained."

"Sorry, the guards could wake up at any minute," Charmcaster replied, "We are actually going too slow."

"Can't you girls make a teleportation spell?" Ben suggested.

"You don't know how magic works do you?" Charmcaster giggled, "Let me try to explain: can you run 100 meters in under 10 seconds?"

"Well, I never tried," Ben replied.

"You can't, Ben," Gwen answered, "None of us here can. But world-class sprinters do it."

"Exactly. Technically, any witch can teleport, just like any guy can run 100 meters in under 10 seconds, but it takes training, practice and a lot of natural talent to pull off something like this. Any witch or warlock is usually naturally good at something specific and uses potions and rituals to help with all the other stuff. My main natural talent is to bring inanimate objects to life. I have a few stone golems here in my magical bag that I really hope I won't have to use today."

"I can turn invisible," Adrianna said.

"I can freeze things," Eliza said.

"I have super senses," Stacy said.

"What can you do, Red?" Charmcaster asked Gwen.

"I actually don't know," Gwen stopped talking for a second, "When I was ten on a summer road trip with Ben and Grandpa Max, a blue aura started glowing around me and I felt good, like, really good. My Grandma Verdona explained the basics, but she and my mother didn't get along well and I never got to train with her. Besides, my parents emphasized to me to never use my powers since witches and warlocks are automatically drafted to the Plumbers."

"Or to Kevin's harem, when they're attractive females," Eliza said in disgust.

"And you obeyed them?" Charmcaster asked Gwen, "I can't believe you actually never used your powers. Come on."

"Well…" Gwen hesitated, "I kind of do use them when I'm alone. Like, before I have a school exam or a karate practice, sometimes I just 'activate' my aura, but it never does anything besides boosting my own self-confidence and making me feel better."

"Have you ever considered that your powers actually make you better?" Charmcaster asked.

"What?" Gwen asked back confused.

"Maybe your power is to enhance all your natural abilities, like your intelligence, agility and strength, and to bring you good luck."

"That's why you always aced your tests!" Ben exclaimed, "You were cheating the whole time, Dweeb!"

"That's… That's not true!" Gwen said very surprised.

"It is, it is, and you know it! What about that time a few years ago when we made a bet to play Sumo Slammers? You beat me seven times and made me do your chores for the whole summer! Now I know how you pulled that off, with your aura of luck!" Ben complained.

"Hey, the initial bet was that the loser would do the winner's chores for one day. You lost and kept asking for rematches and raising the stakes until we were betting for the entire summer. I didn't even want to bet anything at all at first!" Gwen defended herself.

"You're not even denying that you used your powers! Aren't you ashamed of yourself, Dweeb?" Ben asked.

"I didn't use my powers, Doofus!" Gwen said, and then they realized that Charmcaster and the other girls were laughing, "Can we not do this now, especially not in front of Charmcaster?"

"Hey, I have the right to know these stories too since I'm family now. Don't forget, Red, I'm your soon to be cousin-in-law." Charmcaster winked.

"I'd really like to forget that," Gwen replied.

"Keep talking!" Adrianna said, "It's distracting me and making this walk a lot easier."

Another hour later, Charmcaster finally said, "This is as close as we can get to the hangar from the sewers." She looked at the holo-map. "Now comes the hardest part. We will have to go up and walk for about half an hour out in the open. Stacy, can you use your powers to hear if there is someone waiting for us out there?"

Stacy nodded, glowed in a white light and closed her eyes for a few seconds, but soon opened them up again in shock, "The streets are crowded with Plumbers looking for us! Their orders are to shoot Ben on sight, and to shoot the five of us if we offer resistance."

Charmcaster paused to think. Ben expected to hear an _"I told you so"_, but it didn't come.

"I get that they'd kill me, but you girls too? I thought it would be a 'bring them back alive no matter what' order," Ben whispered.

"Do you know how Kevin lost his eighth life?" Stacy said, "One of his wives killed him. Ever since then, rebel wives don't get second chances."

"Adrianna, if we all hold hands, can you extend your aura and make us invisible too?" Charmcaster asked.

"What? Don't you remember what I said before? She was drained yesterday!" Eliza pointed out.

"I got this, Eliza!" Adrianna exclaimed, "I'm feeling a lot better already." Ben had the feeling that she was lying. She was very brave.

"If I get to be the President of the Galactic Alliance, I'll give you a fat lifelong pension so you can just spend the rest of your days laying down on a beach somewhere and never have to work again," Ben smiled to encourage Adrianna as the six lined up and held hands.

"You're sweet, but my parents are very rich. I don't need a pension. Don't you have anything else to offer, Ben?" Adrianna replied in a joking tone.

Ben thought for a few seconds and then said, "I'll give you every medal and honor award a President of the Galactic Alliance can possibly give. Better, I'll name a new award after you!"

Adrianna giggled, "Ok, I suppose that will have to do."

"Red, activate your aura too," Charmcaster said in a worried tone, "We need all the luck we can get."

"By the way, before we go, who here actually knows how to pilot a ship?" Stacy asked.

"Me. Kind of," Charmcaster said, "As I mentioned, I can bring inanimate objects to life. Ships included. I will magically put it into auto-pilot."

The six went up, lined up and holding hands, and started passing through dozens of Plumbers unnoticed. After walking invisible for several minutes - Adrianna was holding up like a real hero - they finally saw the hangar with the jets and their ticket way out of there. They were going to make it!

That's what they thought until they heard bark-like sounds.

Plumbers with Vulpimancers on leashes were approaching them, "We are close, guys. Our hounds will find them," one of them said.

Vulpimancers were alien dog-like creatures. They were big, orange and blind, but their smelling was fantastic. The barking got louder, and the alien animals became even more agitated as they were getting closer to the invisible group. They quickened the pace, but Ben knew they would never outrun the Vulpimancers. In a few seconds, one of the Vulpimancers would be close enough to jump on them and it would all be over.

Fortunately, Ben was the last one on the line, "Go, get out of here. I'll distract them," he whispered as he let go of Stacy's hand. He was happy that Gwen wasn't the next one after him, because he was pretty sure Gwen would try to stay behind too, but since she was in the middle of the line, she couldn't break formation because of the others.

"I'M RIGHT HERE!" Ben screamed as every Plumber pointed their gun at him, shocked by his sudden appearance. He fiddled with the watch not knowing what he was doing - and to no results. Then he just slammed it out of anger, "Do something, damn it!"

He felt his body burn and he was sure it was because of the lasers being fired at him. But then he saw his skin changing into magmatic rocks and fire and he realized it wasn't that. Everybody - Ben himself included - stared in awe as he turned into a Pyronite - an alien species that he only knew through lessons at school.

"I have the Omnitrix!" Pyronite-Ben yelled, "Kevin Levin is a fraud. He is not worthy. Lay down your weapons."

"Kill him now!" One of the Plumbers yelled back, and they all started firing at Ben.

The Pyronite defended himself by throwing fireballs back at them, "Don't force me to hurt you!"

Then he saw a ship taking off. The girls had made it out.

"The President's Ladies are getting away! Take down that ship now!" Another Plumber yelled.

"Oh, no, you won't!" the Pyronite hero started to burn everything around him, especially targeting the other ships so they would have no way to pursue the girls.

But as powerful as that alien form was, it wasn't invulnerable, and he was vastly outnumbered. They shot at him from all sides with all kinds of different weapons and some - Ben didn't even know what was being fired - hurt like hell. He wasn't going to last long.

When a new group of alien Plumbers showed up, Ben thought that was it; he was done for. But to his surprise, the new group actually started fighting against the others. Even though the Pyronite hero was busy trying to blast his own opponents he still caught glimpses of the battle around him. He saw a Vaxasaurian growing up in size and literally stomping other Plumbers, but then he was the biggest target around and very hard to miss. The Vaxasaurian finally fell dead after being shot at too many times. He saw Appoplexians and Tetramands taking out many Plumbers - and dying too.

Ben didn't know how much time had passed, but eventually he turned back into a human. His old clothes were gone, but the Omnitrix seemed to have created a black and white jumpsuit for him. He fell to his knees, exhausted from the battle, and was helped up by a Tetramand.

"Are you ok?" The Tetramand asked.

"Did we win?" Ben asked back.

"For now. They will send reinforcements soon," The Tetramand replied, "We have to go now."

"And about your other friends?" Ben asked.

"They fought bravely, and they died bravely. There is just us now."

Ben looked at the carnage around him: fire, destruction and dead bodies everywhere. Thankfully, there was one ship left standing and the Tetramand - Kabeb - knew how to pilot.

Kabeb explained that half of the Ladies' Guards were touched by Ben's compassion and decided to defect. They were the ones who aided Ben. The other half, however, warned the Capital's security forces about the escape. That's why they encountered so much resistance on their way to the hangar.

Ben set up a holo-call to Gwen, "Cuz, it's me."

"Ben? Oh my God! I'm so glad you're alive!"

* * *

Ben smiled as he and Kabeb stepped aboard the ship with the girls. After introducing his new friend to them, Ben asked, "There is someone who deserves a special thanks, Adrianna. Where is she?"

Gwen bit her lip and Charmcaster lowered her head.

"She… didn't make it," Gwen said teary-eyed.

"What? How?" Ben felt his heart clench.

"She pushed herself to the limit for us," Charmcaster said in a soft voice filled with sadness, "But it was too much for her…"

"No," Ben gasped, "No, no, no, no…"

He ran around the ship, looking for Eliza, Stacy and Adrianna. He quickly found them. Eliza was sobbing and crying a river with Stacy by her side trying to give her some comfort, and Adrianna's lifeless body was lying over a table.

Hugs and condolences were exchanged, but Ben didn't think of anything meaningful to say that could possibly make things better.

He felt responsible. Adrianna's death was weighing heavy on his shoulders and a part of him thought he had killed her himself. He left, found some isolated corner on the ship and collapsed on the floor.

Gwen followed him and kneeled in front of him. She caressed his face, "It's not your fault, cuz. You did the best you could."

"If I had let Charmcaster kill the guards..." Ben whispered.

"Kabeb wouldn't be here. You saved his life," Gwen grabbed his hands and held them tight.

"But Adrianna wouldn't have died. I got her killed! I killed her!" Ben exclaimed.

"No, you didn't. If Kevin hadn't drained her, she would be alive. The only person who is to be blamed for this is Kevin, ok?" She said, looking into his eyes.

"But I-I… I…"

"Shhhh," Gwen hugged Ben's head against her chest and kissed his hair. "You're a good person. I don't want you blaming yourself for being good. Please, don't do this. Please..."

* * *

Soon they ditched the ship, communicators, cellphones, everything they had that could be used to track them down. Grandpa Max picked them up in the middle of a forest and drove them to a safe house. The day was dawning when they arrived there.

Ben's and Gwen's parents were waiting for them, and the parents happily hugged their kids, "We love you so much", "We're so glad you're ok", "We were so worried", "We're so proud", ...

"Eliza's and Stacy's parents will be here soon," Grandpa Max said, "and the Wizard Community will help us disappear too. That's the best course of action right now, lay low for a while."

"Accepting help from the Wizard Community is not an option for me," Charmcaster said, "I'm a wanted criminal in their eyes. They'd lock me up and throw away the key."

"It can't be that bad. You did something good today. That's gotta count," Ben argued.

"You don't know me, Ben," Charmcaster said with a sad smile, "My uncle is the most feared dark lord in the wizard world, and I... I helped him to do a lot of bad things. They won't just let me go."

"No offense," Natalie, Gwen's mother, intervened, "But the rest of us are going to take up the wizards' offer."

"As you should," Charmcaster nodded.

"But I can't, right?" Ben asked, "I have to stay with you, and protect you. It's our deal."

"Yes, Ben. I'm sorry about that." She smiled sadly again. "I'll do my best to make it up to you, though."

"You can go to my homeworld, Khoros," Kabeb said, "You are the true Wielder of the Omnitrix, young warrior. Princess Looma will help you defeat the usurper. And no outsider has ever conquered Khoros. You will be safe there."

"Wait a minute," Charmcaster intervened, "You are a Plumber because the Tetramands are Kevin's allies. Princess Looma is married to him."

"Technically, you are too," Kabeb replied. "Our Princess hates him as much as you do. Kevin Levin challenged the Princess in combat, defeated her and married her per our traditions, true, but he only did that because he failed to conquer our world through war and lost thousands of soldiers in our deserts. Kevin Levin didn't even bother to come and see the Princess since their marriage ceremony and, as a matter of fact, he didn't even consummate said marriage. The only thing he does is demand she send men to join his army and to mine taydenite for him. He cares not for our people and has no love for our Princess."

"No love? To me, it looks like he treats her better than all his other wives," Charmcaster said in a sarcastic tone, "Anyway, getting the Tetramands on our side is a huge opportunity that we shouldn't pass up."

"You are right," Ben said, "Kabeb, Charmcaster and I will go with you to Khoros. The rest of you should go into hiding with the wizards' help."

"Son, your mother and I won't leave you, we-" Carl began to say.

"No, Dad, you and Mom have no combat experience, no powers, and no alien watch. You can't help me. The best thing you can do for me now is to hide and stay safe, so I don't have to worry about you," Ben replied.

"He's right, son," Grandpa Max said to Carl, "Don't worry, we will set up some safe way for you to talk to Ben daily. You stay with the Wizards. I will go. I have plenty of combat experience and I'm a former Plumber. I can watch Ben's back."

"And I have powers. I can help too." Gwen stood up. "I'll go with you guys."

"No way, young lady!" Natalie yelled, "You will stay with us!"

"The reason Ben is in trouble now is because he was trying to save me from Kevin. I'm not abandoning him." Gwen folded her arms and stormed off. Natalie and Frank followed her, obviously to try to change her mind.

Eliza went to the first bedroom she could find and stayed there crying, obviously still very shaken by her sister's death. Stacy didn't leave her side.

Kabeb and Grandpa Max left to prepare things for the trip to Khoros and Charmcaster went with them, not wanting to be anywhere near there when the wizards arrived.

After a few minutes spent talking with his parents, Ben excused himself, looking to get some rest. He found a nice bedroom and jumped on the bed, but before he fell asleep Uncle Frank and Aunt Natalie showed up to talk to him.

"Son," Frank said, "We know everything, and we are really grateful for what you did for our daughter. You saved her. Thank you."

"No need to thank me. She's my cousin. I'd do anything for her," Ben answered.

"I'm glad you said that, sweetie." Natalie put a hand on Ben's shoulder, "Because there is something you can do for her now."

Ben had a feeling he knew what they would ask.

"You're going to gather allies to fight against the President of the Galactic Alliance. You're going to war. You know it's best for your parents to stay away from that, so we're sure you know that it's the best for Gwen too. We tried to tell Gwen that, but she won't listen to us," Natalie sighed, but then smiled, "We can count on you, right? We know you're going to do the right thing. You're not a selfish person. You're not going to take Gwen with you on this dangerous journey, right, sweetie?"

Ben gulped. He told his parents to stay and he would never ask Gwen to go with him, true, but if he were to be honest with himself, he was happy that she wanted to go. He tried to convince himself that it was different because she had powers or because Kevin was already targeting her, but deep down he knew it was much more than that. He couldn't quite explain - or didn't want to think about - but he felt more attached to his cousin than to his own parents.

Ben didn't know how long he would be out there in space. Months? Years? He simply didn't want to stay away from Gwen that long. He_ needed_ her. He wanted her with him. And she wanted to go. But was Aunt Natalie right? Would it be selfish to allow Gwen to join him on this dangerous journey?

* * *

**Should Ben...**

**1) Take Gwen with him.**

**2) Leave without Gwen.**

*** You know the rules: poll in my profile; mobile users need to switch to desktop mode to see the poll; ten days to vote. You all can probably guess that I have a personal preference about this particular choice, but I want to be fair, so the choice is yours.**

*** Thanks to all who are reading this, and thanks to Aurora Nightstar for grammar corrections. If anyone wants to give opinions, comments or suggestions about the fic, please leave a review and/or talk to me in a PM. I really appreciate that. **


	4. Chapter 4

**Warning: Ben's romantic relationships and moral alignment, as well as other aspects, will be decided based on your choices. This story might contain mature themes.**

* * *

**Previously...**

_The President of the Galactic Alliance, Kevin Levin, wanted to make Gwen Tennyson part of his harem. However, he's addicted to energy and uses his witch wives as batteries, sucking their mystical energy. To save Gwen from this fate, Ben Tennyson made a deal with Charmcaster, who helped him to steal the Omnitrix from Kevin and escape from the Capital. During the escape, however, an innocent girl named Adrianna died. Later, it was decided that Ben's family would stay under the Sorcerer Community protection, while he, Grandpa Max and Charmcaster would follow a Tetramand named Kabeb to Khoros to try to convince the Tetramands to help them against Kevin. Gwen wanted to go too, but Gwen's mother Natalie objected and asked Ben to leave without Gwen._

* * *

**Result from the last poll:** _Ben should take Gwen with him (winner): 35 votes, Ben should leave without Gwen (loser): 7 votes_

* * *

**Now...**

* * *

"I'm sorry, Aunt Natalie, Uncle Frank," Ben said, "but President Kevin is after Gwen. She's also a target. I feel better if she's near me, where I can take care of her protection myself." He raised his left arm, showing the Omnitrix.

"The same way you protected that girl, Adrianna?" Natalie folded her arms. "I know you have good intentions, but if you drag Gwen with you into this war, you can't guarantee your cousin won't be the next one to die. Is that what you want?"

Ben felt a lump in his throat. He didn't know what to say.

"Stop it, Mom!" Gwen shot Natalie a death glare. "I told you I'd go, and that's the end of the story." She grabbed Ben's arm and pulled him into the bedroom. "I won't let her try to convince you to get rid of me." Ben went along with her offering no resistance.

Gwen closed the door behind her. "I won't abandon you when you need me the most, Ben."

"But your mother is right..." Ben said, collapsing on the bed.

"She isn't." Gwen sat next to Ben. "I have my aura of luck and I'm a black belt in karate. You don't have to worry about me. Besides, look at it from my point of view. You got into this mess to protect me. If I leave you and you get hurt, I'll never be able to forgive myself. I want to protect you too. And, let's face the facts, without me around, Charmcaster will mold you into being just like her. I'm not going to let that happen."

"I don't want to leave you behind, Gwen, but I really should." Ben noticed that Gwen was wearing short white shorts. He couldn't take his eyes off his cousin's beautiful exposed legs. That was also part of the reason he didn't want to leave her behind, but he should. "You don't understand, Dweeb."

"I'm a lot smarter than you, Doofus, so I'm sure I'd understand if you explain," she answered, playfully landing a soft punch on his shoulder.

Ben took a deep breath. He didn't know how to say it, but she deserved honesty. "What if I told you that I want you by my side forever, no matter where, no matter what?"

Gwen smiled with a genuine expression of happiness and gave him a very tight hug. "Awww, Ben, how sweet of you! I always knew you enjoyed my company and that I was your best friend, but it's really nice to see you admitting it out loud. We'll never be apart, baby cuz!"

_"Best friends? Baby cuz? That's not what I was trying to say."_ Ben thought, but he didn't say anything else, his desire to be honest was gone, and now the only thing he could think about was how nice that tight hug was; having her breasts pressed against his chest and the smell of her perfume on his nose.

* * *

Half an hour later the wizards arrived to take Eliza, Stacy and the Tennyson family to a safer place.

"Are you sure none of you has the slightest idea where Charmcaster could possibly be now? All the reports we've heard from the Galactic Alliance Government say that she escaped as well," one of the sorcerers said.

"We had split up during the escape and Charmcaster has never been too much of a talker," Stacy lied to protect the friend who had helped her escape, "Unfortunately we really don't know anything that might help. But she helped us escape, you should consider taking it easy on her when you find her. "

"It's also for her own good if we get her before the President does. The last time, she was arrested by the Plumbers and the President took her out of prison to marry her. If he gets to her again this time, he'll probably kill her. But if we sorcerers catch her, she's going to our prison. She may have helped you because it suited her interests, but make no mistake, she is guilty of many crimes alongside her uncle Hex. Robberies, murders, use of forbidden black magic... She is not a good person."

"Anyway, kid," a witch said, addressing Ben, "You have the Omnitrix, we sorcerers despise the current President and your cousin is one of us. You can count on our people as your allies."

"Glad to know that. My family will stay under your protection so we will always be in touch. When the time comes, I'm going to ask for help." Ben forced a smile. _"I'm not so sure your people are going to accept the fact that I'm kind of engaged to Charmcaster thanks to a magical oath,"_ he thought. It was likely that any alliance with the sorcerers would come with the condition of turning Charmcaster in, and Ben couldn't do that - literally.

Everyone said their goodbyes, promising to keep in touch, although the farewells hadn't been very good with Gwen's parents, who still wanted their daughter to stay with them and were quite upset.

Ben and Gwen walked for a few minutes in the woods until they reached a glade where Grandpa Max, Charmcaster, and the Tetramand soldier Kabeb were waiting for them, with a ship.

"This ship is not very big, but it has space for all of us and can go through the wormholes," Max said, "It will get us to Khoros."

* * *

Ben slept for almost a whole day - he was quite tired - but he woke up just in time to find a room with a glass that allowed him to see outer space. He realized that the ship was approaching a wormhole. In a few minutes, they would exit the solar system and get to the other side of the universe. Ben was not a physicist, but he knew that even in the fastest of the spaceships any trip from one point to another that far away without going through a wormhole would take decades.

Ben sat in front of the glass and stared at the approaching wormhole, admiring the sight.

"The legends of my people say that Celestialsapiens created these portals millions of years ago," Charmcaster said as she sat down next to Ben, "Celestialsapiens are said to be omnipotent beings. If you have one of them on your watch, you could disintegrate Kevin or Vilgax with a snap of your fingers."

"I hope I don't have one. I wouldn't trust myself with all that power," Ben said, "By the way, how do sorcerers know about these Celestialsapiens? "

Charmcaster giggled, "We don't know. No one has ever seen one. Maybe Celestialsapiens are just the name we call God or the angels. "

Then the ship finally entered the wormhole. Outside, everything was in the deepest darkness, and Ben felt a weird feeling similar to that of being on an elevator that just stopped. It lasted only for a few seconds, and then they were in space again, but now hundreds of light-years away from Earth.

"Wow, that was pretty cool," Ben said, "I thought I'd live my whole life on Earth without ever doing something like this. Being on the other side of the universe gives a sense of..."

"Freedom," Charmcaster added, "One thing I thought I would never have again."

"I'm glad I got you out of Kevin's hands," Ben said with a friendly smile.

"Thank you." Charmcaster returned the smile. She looked so beautiful and innocent smiling like that... For a second, Ben forgot about her long list of crimes.

"You know, if you really want to thank me, you could try to solve the... issues... between you and the sorcerer community. They could be great allies."

"I'm so sorry. They asked you to turn me over to them, didn't they? Don't worry, once you're the president, they'll accept the situation better. I mean, Kevin didn't turn me over to them, and they didn't start a war over it. I'm pretty sure that just based on the fact that you're not going to use witches as batteries they'll like you better than your predecessor. And I'll behave... " and then she added, whispering in Ben's ear in a seductive tone, "If you want me to behave, of course."

Charmcaster gave Ben a few pecks along his neck, and he felt an involuntary reaction beginning in his pants. _"First, my own cousin, and now a notorious criminal. Thank you very much, my hormones,"_ Ben thought sarcastically.

Charmcaster placed her fingers on Ben's jaw and turned Ben's face toward hers. Ben waited for a kiss, but ... it didn't happen. The enchantress stopped.

"What are we going to do now, Ben?" Charmcaster asked with a smirk.

"In that contract, you put up a clause saying that I can't refuse to... you know what ... So, we will do whatever you want to because I don't want to die with my blood boiling," Ben said, trying to look more upset than he actually was.

Charmcaster laughed, "Why are you pretending this is an obligation?"

"I-It's a-an o-obligation. I'm not happy a-about i-it," Ben stammered.

Charmcaster placed her hand over the bulge in his pants. "Really? Because your big friend here seems pretty happy about it..."

The young silver-haired witch slipped her hand inside Ben's pants and began to massage his 'wand'. He bit his lips trying not to let out a moan.

"You can't admit you want a bad girl like me, can you? Fine then." She suddenly stopped the massage but kept her hand where it was. "I won't let you use that contract as an excuse. Say it. Say you want this, say 'yes', and we're going to bed right now. Say you don't want this, say 'no', and I'll leave you alone and we'll be just friends..."

Ben broke out in a cold sweat. His head told him to say _no_, but his "wrong head" wanted to scream _yes_. The boy remained silent.

"Silence? I'll let you think about that for a while then, but I'll want my answer soon," Charmcaster winked at Ben. Then she got up and left.

* * *

After two weeks of traveling through the vastness of space, they finally arrived in Khoros.

The ship flew over both vast deserts and dense forests, and Ben noticed that the thing all the sceneries had in common was the redness. Ground, trees, sky, they were all colored in different tones of red. The Tetramands lived inside large pyramid-like structures, as Kabeb had explained, their world was full of wild beasts and monsters, it wasn't safe for anyone to stay out in the open unprotected.

They stopped in front of a pyramid and, after Kabeb identified himself in the comms, a gate was opened for the ship to fly inside. A small crowd of Tetramands were there to see the visitors. A few were carrying weapons - not laser guns, but blades, as they weren't a technologically advanced society.

Ben's team was greeted by a very tall and strong Tetramand - taller and stronger than the average Tetramands - who had an eye patch covering one of his four-eyes and had a broad smile on his face.

"Welcome friends! I'm Warlord Gar Red Wind, the father of Princess Looma, Overlordess of our people. Your friend Kabeb sent a message to me telling all about your bravery and heroicness. I'm impressed. Please, eat a meal and rest for the night," he said in a sympathetic tone. Thanks to translation devices, Ben's team could understand Gar and also have their English words translated to his tongue.

"So, you're the King?" Ben asked.

"Not really. I'm just a Warlord." Gar shook his head. "We aren't a hereditary monarchy. My daughter earned her position by proving to be the strongest of us."

"I understand that President Kevin has earned the right to marry the Princess by proving to be even stronger, right?" Charmcaster asked.

"Unfortunately, yes." Gar breathed heavily. "But that marriage wasn't consummated and therefore can be made null, breaking our alliance with Kevin Levin. I'm sure the Wielder of the Omnitrix will be able to complete the deadly trials established by our laws and-"

"One-minute, deadly trials?" Gwen asked, "I thought you Tetramands wanted to make an alliance with Ben, not get him killed! Your daughter is the Overlordess. Can't she just give herself a divorce or something?"

"That's not how it works for us. We have our laws and traditions and it would be dishonorable to break them. The only reason we still uphold our alliance with President Kevin Levin is because he completed all the trials himself and married the Princess according to our laws. We definitely don't want the death of the Wielder of the Omnitrix, but he needs to complete the trials and marry the Princess."

"Let me get this straight, if we want your people to break your alliance with Kevin, Ben needs to complete these deadly trials and marry Princess Looma?" Gwen asked.

"Yes," the Warlord answered. "But don't worry, we will train him for it. We want him to win. And if an imposter completed the trials before, surely the real Wielder of the Omnitrix can complete them too."

"I don't like the marriage part either," Gwen commented, "Don't get me wrong, Mister Red Wind, I'm sure your daughter is great. It's just that arranged marriages are not the custom for our people."

Then Charmcaster intervened, "So what? Cousin marriages aren't either, but nobody is stopping you from getting your shot at Ben." Grandpa Max widened his eyes and Gwen blushed redder than a tomato, but before anyone could say anything, Charmcaster proceeded, "Our goal is to make Ben the President of the Galactic Alliance. If we have to share him with a few alien princesses for that to happen, it's worth it. Sorry, Mister Red Wind, she is just jealous."

"I'm not jealous and I don't want to marry Ben!" Gwen's responded in anger, "And it isn't our goal to make Ben the President. It's your goal, Charmcaster! Actually, Grandpa Max, Ben and I would have gone into hiding with the sorcerers' help if it wasn't for you sticking around!"

"Sorry if I want us to take down a tyrant and make the galaxy a better place," Charmcaster argued.

"Yes, you want to make the galaxy a better place… for yourself!" Gwen replied back, "Let's not forget that you made Ben take that oath! Or was making you a queen also to benefit the galaxy?"

"Girls, girls, let's calm down." Ben tried to break up the argument. He noticed a Tetramand soldier leading a much smaller frog-like alien in chains and asked, "What are Incurseans doing here?"

"It's no secret how valuable Taydenite is, and that this planet has plenty of it. Those dirty toads are always trying to rob from us," the Warlord said in anger, "The most recent attempt was a raid led by Lithobates. But we defeated them, and they will be sent to the arena for their crimes." Then the anger vanished, replaced by laughter. "The beasts are going to have their bellies full of them, and I can't wait to watch it!"

Ben gulped. That custom seemed pretty barbaric to him.

"Lithobates? One of Emperor Milleous' high-ranking commanders?" Charmcaster asked a little surprised, "Is he alive? Can we talk to him? Maybe I can extract information from him about future Incursean plans against Tetramands."

"He's alive for now. You can see him." The Warlord gestured for one of his soldiers to lead them to the containment cell where Lithobates was being held.

The soldier stood outside and let Ben, Gwen, Grandpa Max, and Charmcaster enter the cell by themselves. They saw Lithobates, a fat humanoid toad, resting with his back on the wall and chained up.

"Witch!" Lithobates said as he recognized Charmcaster, "You have to get me out of here, please!" Once again, the translation devices allowed them to both understand and talk to the Incursean in his tongue.

"Why would I do that?" Charmcaster asked, arching her eyebrows.

"Did you forget that your uncle Hex and I are allies? Croac croac," he inflated his throat and croaked like a frog, "Every time he needs to go to space, I give him supplies, transport, information, everything he needs."

"Screw my uncle and whatever deal you have with him. When I needed him the most, to rescue me from Kevin, he never showed up," Charmcaster said in anger.

"Alright, I can give you money. As many units as you want, name your price! Croac croac!" Lithobates pleaded.

"Much more than you can afford. What I want is to put this handsome young man here, the new Wielder of the Omnitrix, at the chair of the Presidency of the Galactic Alliance." Charmcaster pointed to Ben.

"What? Why did you tell him I have the Omnitrix?" Ben asked in shock, "I don't want the Incurseans after me!"

"Don't worry, he won't tell anyone because he will get killed inside the Tetramands' arena anyway," Charmcaster whispered in response to Ben.

"The Wielder of the Omnitrix? Croac croac" Lithobates croaked as he widened his eyes, "Emperor Milleous wants to place the Incursean Empire at the forefront of the Galactic Alliance. He offered to marry his daughter, Princess Attea, to President Kevin, but the President chose to marry that four-armed troglodyte princess. Croac croac! That was an insult to our people!"

"Tetramands and Incurseans are sworn enemies," Grandpa Max whispered to Ben.

"Save my life, and I promise the Incurseans will back you up against President Kevin!" And then he addressed Ben, "You can marry our Princess Attea, then you will be the Prince of the Incurseans! Croac croac. I can make this deal happen."

Charmcaster approached him and whispered, "Are you willing to take a magical oath so we can make sure you're telling the truth and can actually help us, in exchange for us saving your life?"

"Yes," Lithobates replied immediately.

Charmcaster turned off her translation device, and Ben, Gwen and Grandpa Max did the same. Now, neither Lithobates nor Tetramands would understand them.

"That would make sure he can't screw us over," Charmcaster said, "But the Tetramands will never release Lithobates. We'd have to betray them to get him out of here. On the other hand, if we ally ourselves with the Tetramands, the Incurseans will hate us. There's no way to get both on our side."

"And why should we side with either of them?" Gwen asked, "I don't love the Tetramands, but I get the feeling that Incurseans aren't any better."

"We need protection and allies against Kevin. Otherwise we'll be sitting ducks," Charmcaster answered.

"Grandpa, you were a Plumber. You know these people better than the rest of us here. Give me a crash course on Tetramands and Incurseans," Ben asked.

Max sighed, "The Incurseans always had ambitions to conquer the galaxy, but ever since their homeworld was destroyed a few hundred years ago, they were forced to slow down a bit. Now they live aboard their fleet of ships and are space pirates who loot across the universe. I have no doubt that they would like to have the President of the Galaxy at their side so they could once again dominate other races. Incurseans are not quite physically impressive, but they have advanced weapons and an impressive fleet of ships that definitely make up for it."

"Thieves, wannabe galaxy conquerors, doesn't sound good… So, I should stay with Tetramands, right?" Ben asked.

"Tetramands never tried to conquer other planets, that's true, but they are a warrior race who favor violence far too much, as you must have realized by their intended punishment for the invaders. It doesn't make them look too nice in my eyes either. They are very strict in upholding their laws, which means we can trust their word, but it's also the reason why they are following Kevin right now. Tetramands have very primitive weapons and technology, but they have strong warriors and a very valuable material in their planet - Taydenite."

"Legalistic barbarians," Ben said, "Neither side can be called 'good'."

"Just like humans. No one is completely good," Charmcaster argued.

"I think you don't really have to decide that today. You still might not want an alliance with either side," Gwen said, "The real decision right now is whether or not we come up with a plan to save this Incursean Commander or not. I don't like the idea of leaving this guy to die devoured by a beast, but he's evil, and helping him walk away unpunished for his crimes seems wrong. I don't know... What do you want to do?"

* * *

**This time you have two choices to make:**

*** Choice 1 (about what to do with the Incursean Commander)**

**\- Help the Incursean Commander escape.**

**\- Let the Incursean Commander be executed.**

**(Saving the Incursean Commander means Ben might pursue an alliance with the Incurseans and Attea, while letting the Incursean Commander be executed means Ben might pursue an alliance with the Tetramands and Looma)**

*** Choice 2 (the answer to Charmcaster's earlier question).**

**\- Tell Charmcaster "Yes, I want you"**

**\- Tell Charmcaster "No, let's be just friends"**

**Since I can only make one poll, the poll will be multichoice, and you should pick two options (one answer for each choice). Poll is on my profile, 10 days to vote.**

***Thanks to everybody reading this and to Aurora Nightstar for beta reading this.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Previously…**

_The President of the Galactic Alliance, Kevin Levin, wanted to make Gwen Tennyson part of his harem. However, he's addicted to energy and uses his witch wives as batteries, sucking their mystical energy. To save Gwen from this fate, Ben Tennyson made a deal with Charmcaster, who helped him to steal the Omnitrix from Kevin and escape. Ben, Gwen, Grandpa Max and Charmcaster followed a Tetramand named Kabeb to Khoros to try to convince the Tetramands to help them against Kevin. The Tetramands agreed to help, however Princess Looma is legally married to Kevin, and the only way to get the Tetramands to switch sides is if Ben completes a set of trials marry Looma himself and annul her previous marriage to Kevin. Also, they found a prisoner, an Incursean Commander named Lithobates, who made them a counterproposal, an alliance with the Incurseans, if they betrayed the Tetramands and helped him escape._

* * *

**Results from the last poll:**

_**(Choice 1) Let the Incursean Commander be executed (winner): 29 votes**_

_(Choice 1) Help the Incursean Commander escape (loser): 17 votes_

_**(Choice 2) Tell Charmcaster "Yes, I want you" (winner): 35 votes**_

_(Choice 2) Tell Charmcaster "No, let's be just friends" (loser): 11 votes_

* * *

**Important Warnings:**

**Due to the results from the poll, this chapter will contain Ben/Charmcaster in ****mature scenes****. Please, DON'T read this chapter if this content is offensive to you.**

* * *

**CHAPTER 5**

* * *

Ben, Gwen, Max and Charmcaster walked away from the cell as the Incursean Commander Lithobates yelled and cursed them.

Later, the Tennysons and Charmcaster had dinner with warlord Gar Red Wind, the soldier Kabeb and a few other Tetramands. Notably absent, though, was the Overlordess, Princess Looma.

"I hope you're enjoying the food," Gar said, "It's a delicacy, cooked meat from one of the native beasts of Khoros. But I know it's not what humans usually eat."

Ben and Gwen glanced at each other and smiled, both thinking the same thing. All the weird stuff that Grandpa Max cooked for them during all those summers had prepared them to eat absolutely any alien food with ease.

"So, are we going to meet Princess Looma soon?" Ben asked. Grandpa Max shot him a stern glare. It wasn't polite enough to ask such a question. Clearly Ben wasn't well versed in diplomacy.

"I'm happy you're looking forward to meeting the Princess," Gar Red Wind said as he chewed meat. Apparently, earthly table manners weren't a thing among Tetramands, and for that Ben was glad, "But, unfortunately, she prefers not to meet any challenger before the fight. Meeting you now could create... emotional bonds... that could affect her perspective in the upcoming challenge. She won't go easy on you. She doesn't go easy on anyone."

"I'm sorry if I'm being too nosy," Charmcaster asked, "But if Princess Looma hates President Kevin so much, why will she try to make things harder for the guy who wants to break her free from that unwanted marriage?"

Ben knew that this was Charmcaster's subtle way of asking, _"Why the heck doesn't she just throw the fight?"_

"The Princess could simply allow anyone to defeat her. She'd marry this person and, yes, her alliance with Kevin would be broken. That would be very easy and could have been done at any time." Gar Red Wind said in a patronizing tone, "But then President Kevin would just come here, murder the new husband right in front of her, make the princess a widow and remarry her," he completed in a cold tone. Ben gulped and wondered if that had already happened before... "That's why she will fight Benjamin for real. That's also why he needs to pass through the other trial - that is, find the taydenite that only exists in the most dangerous place in Khoros, one that is filled with dreadful beasts. If he can face these challenges, it means that _maybe_ he is strong enough to take on President Kevin when the time comes."

"That... makes sense," Charmcaster whispered as she stared at her plate.

"But believe me," Gar said, now with a broad smile, looking directly at Ben. "My daughter wants to marry you, noble young man. And she knows you will make her very happy."

Ben just smiled and nodded, not knowing what to say. He thought that Princess Looma wanted a marriage to him only to get free of President Kevin. He never stopped to consider that she wanted him to make her happy. If he was actually going to marry her, he had a bigger responsibility than just some political arrangement. He needed to think carefully about it.

After they finished dinner, Kabeb led them to their chambers. Before letting them sleep and get some rest, Kabeb pulled Ben aside to talk to him in private, "Ben, I can't really thank you enough for sparing my life back in the Capital."

"You're welcome, Kabeb," Ben replied, "And you thanked me more than enough by bringing me here and giving me the opportunity to get the Tetramands on my side."

"Princess Looma is a great woman, and she deserves someone much better than Kevin Levin…" Kabeb let out a long sigh, and then he asked, "You're not going to do to her the same thing President Kevin did, right? That is, trap her in a loveless marriage only to get control over Khoros' army and taydenite."

"No, I won't," Ben shook his head.

"Good, I already knew you are a noble man." Kabeb put all his four hands on Ben's shoulders and smiled sadly, "Just promise me you will love her with all your heart, ok?"

Ben finally realized… "Kabeb, you are in love with Princess Looma, aren't you? Why don't you try to go through the trials to marry her yourself?"

"I did," Kabeb lowered his head, "and I failed. She defeated me." Then he gave Ben a soft tap on the back, "Your training starts tomorrow. For now, our focus is on making sure you can complete all the trials successfully, my friend."

* * *

The judgement of the Incurseans who had invaded the Red Winds territory happened two days after Ben arrived in Khoros. It was a very public event with a big crowd, naturally the kind of thing that Ben shouldn't attend to. Except for Princess Looma, Gar, Kabeb and some other trusted personnel, nobody else was aware of Ben's presence in Khoros; after all, the less people knew about it the better, because it meant that there would be less chances that President Kevin would hear about it, and keeping it a secret from Kevin - at least until he could actually secure the alliance with the Tetramands - was crucial.

However, Gar Red Wind insisted that Ben should see the trial anonymously so he could become familiar with Tetramand culture, and Ben didn't feel like saying 'no' to the Warlord father of the Overlordess. As "Four Arms", his Tetramand form, he could easily blend in the crowd, all he needed to do was cover the Omnitrix symbol on his chest with some piece of clothing. It was decided that Ben would pose as a member of the royal guard and watch the event in the Warlords' Box - the "VIP area" - with the Red Winds and the rest of the royal guard - all of them knew who he was, and if the Omnitrix was going to revert him back to normal, he could exit the place quickly from there.

Four Arms and a few of the royal guard stood in position waiting for the Red Winds to arrive. Four Arms stared at the immense stadium. There was a metal grid separating the grandstands from the arena. The crowd was very excited. Then, accompanied by a few more guards, the Overlordess Looma Red Wind appeared alongside her father Gar.

Four Arms' jaw dropped at the sight of the princess. It wasn't hard to guess why his friend Kabeb fell in love with her. Looma was stunningly beautiful and even though she was wearing a full warrior's armor, it didn't hide her beauty, on the contrary, it only seemed to accentuate it. She was tall, strong and voluptuous and Four Arms couldn't take his eyes off her. Of course, Ben imagined that it was his current Tetramand hormones that were making him have such a strong reaction to Looma; if he were still in his human form, he guessed he wouldn't be drooling.

They made eye contact for a few seconds and Four Arms could swear there was a spark there. But then Looma turned her head away from him and addressed the crowd, "My people," she started, "Today we gather here to witness the trial of the Incursean scum that attacked us, killed some of us, and tried to rob us. As per our laws state, we will give them a chance to find redemption, fighting in the arena. May justice be done."

Tetramand soldiers escorted Commander Lithobates and two other Incurseans into the arena. Then Looma and her father threw swords, spears and axes below for them to use. The Incurseans tried to pick up the weapons but they didn't even know how to hold them properly - as a technologically advanced race, they were used to laser guns, not that.

The crowd cheered like crazy as a gate opened and a giant two-headed spider came out of it. There was no doubt that the overwhelming majority (or maybe even everyone) was rooting for the beast. The Incurseans didn't last long. The two Incursean soldiers tried to charge at the spider, but due to their lack of skill with the weapons, they barely made a scratch at the beast and ended up killed very quickly, each devoured by one head. Lithobathes seemed to be a bit smarter. He jumped from one spot to another, avoiding the spider's attacks, and with a spear, he tried to stab the beast with quick moves. His strategy could have worked; however, he didn't count on the fact that the spider could shoot webs. As Lithobates jumped again, webs immobilized his legs in midair, making him fall and lose his mobility. He desperately tried to release his legs from the web capsule, but it was too resistant. The beast approached him as he screamed for the Tetramands to have mercy on him and stop that, a plea that fell on deaf ears. Finally, the spider dilacerated Lithobathes with its fangs to the crowd's delight.

"Next!" The Princess yelled and more Incurseans prisoners were brought to the arena for 'judgement' as the crowd cheered like crazy.

Four Arms, however, was too mesmerized by the Princess' beauty to pay attention to the barbaric spectacle.

* * *

**Weeks later...**

Four Arms was down, having been defeated by Gar Red Wind… for the 19th time.

"You were awesome!" Kabeb, who was there watching the training, extended his hands to help Four Arms get up.

"Awesome? You gotta be kidding me. I lost again! This is so embarrassing," Four Arms said.

Ben had already tried everything. He fought Gar Red Wind many times over the past weeks, using each one of the ten aliens he had unlocked so far, and was defeated every time. He had made more progress - that means, he lasted longer in the fights - as Four Arms. Of course, he had experienced Tetramand warriors there to teach him how to master the Tetramands' natural skills, while on the other hand he had to learn the strengths and weaknesses of the other aliens all by himself. That was probably why he was better at using Four Arms than the others.

"You shouldn't feel embarrassed, my friend," Kabeb said, "Heck, you bested me and half of the royal guards in single combat! And you lasted quite long against Gar Red Wind," Something in Kabeb's voice implied that was a big accomplishment, "And remember, you only had weeks of training while we Tetramands learn to fight before we even learn to walk."

"Really?" Four Arms was astonished.

"I'm exaggerating, but not by much. The point is, you should be proud or yourself."

"It doesn't matter. If I can't defeat Gar, I can't defeat Looma. That's what they told me, remember?" the Omnitrix timed-out, turning Four Arms back into Ben.

"Yes, but Gar Red Wind is a Warlord and his daughter is the Overlordess. They need to be the best among the best or they wouldn't be where they are," Kabeb said, "And with your quick progress, I'm sure you will be able to defeat them too, eventually."

"Kabeb is right, Benjamin," The Warlord said, "I do believe that in one or two years of training you will be able to win the challenge against Princess Looma."

"One or two years? I don't have that time!" Ben exclaimed, "President Kevin is after me. What happens if he finds my friends and I here before I get the chance to annul his marriage to your daughter?"

Gar Red Wind lowered his head, "In that case, I promise we will try to get you out of here safely. I'm sorry we can't side with you against Kevin unless you break that alliance. But don't worry. He will never find out you're here."

"With all due respect, sir, how can you be so sure?" Ben asked.

"First, your presence here is a secret only known by a few trusted men and women. Besides, our technology is not the most advanced. The only person here who possesses a device capable of communication with other planets is my daughter. Nobody could tell the Galactic Government about you being here even if they wanted to," Gar answered.

"Yeah, I guess that is a valid point," Ben said still feeling unconvinced.

The young man was still clearly disappointed, especially with himself.

"You trained enough for today, Benjamin," Gar Red Wind said sympathetically, "Go spend some quality time with your lovers."

"My lovers?" Ben widened his eyes; he knew Gar was likely referring to Gwen and Charmcaster.

He was going to correct him, but before Ben could continue to speak, Gar spoke again, "I mean the two _human_ females," He emphasized the word human and Ben took his meaning, "Please, take no offense in that, Benjamin, but my daughter always dreamed to marry a strong Tetramand warrior who can give her children. You are that person... when you're in your Tetramand form, Four Arms."

"None taken," Ben said as he knew the feeling was mutual - when he was Four Arms he felt a much bigger attraction to Looma than he would feel as Ben. Those Tetramand hormones…

"We know you're not always Four Arms, of course, and we don't care if you have lovers from your own species or other species. But make no mistake, if you marry my daughter and have relations with any Tetramand other than her, it would be a betrayal and you would answer to me!" Gar said as any overprotective father would.

Ben scratched his head, "That's fair."

Gar Red Wind smiled again, "Now go, get some rest and enjoy yourself. We will continue with your training tomorrow as usual."

* * *

Ben found himself hidden in the woods, near a small lake where his hot cousin was taking a bath, completely naked... He had followed Gwen there with the noble goal of ensuring her safety, after all, the place seemed empty, but there could be some pervert hanging around. Who knows? Ben did find a pervert hanging around and trying to spy on Gwen… The last person he would ever suspect… Himself. The second his eyes caught a glimpse of the redhead's beautiful naked body, her breasts, that huge butt and the pink treasure between her legs, the noble goals evaporated from his mind. Ben couldn't take his eyes off her, and unconsciously he began to touch himself.

A sudden movement caught out of the corner of his eye distracted Ben from the amazing view in front of him. It reminded him that he wasn't here to enjoy the view. He was here to protect one of the most important people in the world to him. He was ready to spring into action to protect his cousin.

As he looked closer, he realized the other intruder was the silver haired beauty, Charmcaster. He felt guilty spying on the girls, but the wrong head was in charge. Ben stared as she too undressed herself. It was almost as if Charmcaster knew he was watching. She undressed slowly slipping off her top adding to Ben's sense of anticipation. She even took off her bra, but her beautiful breasts still remained obscured behind her silver hair. She finished undressing herself. He couldn't help admiring every curve. Her naked body was just as amazing as Gwen's. Ben's playing with himself really speeded up when she pushed back her hair to reveal those beautiful mountains on her chest. He couldn't help it but to let out a moan. Unfortunately, the noise caught the attention of both girls as they stared at him.

_"Crap,"_ the boy thought.

"Hey, cuz, stop hiding," Gwen said. Hey, was she smiling?

"Yeah, don't be shy, Ben. Come here and take a bath with us." Charmcaster made the invitation in a seductive tone.

_"Today is the day!"_ The boy thought very excited. Ben didn't waste any time; he took off his shirt and shorts and jumped in the lake… _"This is too good to be true… Wait a second, is it true?"_

Then he woke up and found himself alone in his bed. That was all just a dream... Ben sighed in disappointment.

People are like animals, driven by primitive instincts and desires, but a higher intellect could filter these instincts. For example, it could make Ben rationalize that having sexual desires for his cousin or for a notorious criminal was a terrible idea and he should repress these thoughts. But Ben had no such "higher intellect".

Of course, he would never have the courage to try his chances with Gwen, for fear that she would reject him, and it would push her away from him for good. But Charmcaster, on the other hand, had made it clear that she was willing… And now Ben's wrong head was speaking louder than the right one.

In the middle of the night, Ben knocked on the wooden door of the bedroom where the Tetramands had allocated Charmcaster. After a few seconds, the silver-haired enchantress - covered only by a sheet - opened the door with a very worried expression on her face, "What's the emergency?" Then she noticed the desire in his eyes and glanced at the bulge in his pants, and her expression of worry was replaced by playfulness, "Ah, I see you decided to accept my proposal."

Ben said nothing, just walked into the room and closed the door behind him. He moved toward her for a kiss, but she put her hands on his chest, preventing him from coming any closer. "I thought you didn't want anything to do with a bad girl like me... What made you change your mind?" She smirked mischievously as she was obviously teasing him.

"I, I…" Ben stopped to think for a few seconds, "Your uncle is the real villain, not you. He is the one who made you do awful things."

Charmcaster, still with her hands stretched to put distance between her and Ben, stared at the young man, now with a serious expression, without any trace of her previous playfulness, "What if I told you my father was a very honorable man, and he taught me to be good, just like him... would you still think I'm not bad?" she bit her lip.

"What?" Ben was taken aback. "I… I… your dad, where is he now?" He asked confused.

"He is dead. He died when I was a kid." Charmcaster lowered her arms, leaving Ben free to move. Before, she was clearly playing games with Ben, but now, she was genuinely opening up to him. "Maybe his death made me realize that being good is not worth it, that crime does pay."

"That's not true." Ben lifted her chin and ran his fingers across her cheek caressing her. "You lost someone you loved, and you felt mad at the world, that's normal. You never got over it because you only had your uncle. There was no one on your side to help you through it. But you have friends now. We will-"

"No more blah blah blah." Charmcaster stepped back and returned to her playful demeanor. "You didn't come here to talk." She dropped the sheet that covered her, exposing her naked body. "You came here to get laid."

"Wow!" Ben was completely struck by the wonderful view and forgot what they were talking about a second before.

Ben's hands were immediately draw to her breasts. He started to move his hands around on her breasts, getting a good feel for them. For the first minute, he was slow and hesitant, only squeezing them lightly, but then he grew more bold and started to grope her hard.

"I guess you're not going to need that clause you put on the contract, after all," he said as he played with her breasts.

"What clause?" Charmcaster asked.

"That I'm obligated to have sex with you whenever you want. You won't have to make me do it," Ben said right before wrapping his lips around her left nipple.

"You got it all wrong," she giggled, "That clause is meant to be used only in the future, after you're fully comfortable with our marriage. It's just there so I can make sure my loving husband will make time for me and will never become a workaholic always busy with wars and presidential work... and also, of course, that he won't get too distracted by the other wives." Charmcaster let out a moan and ran her fingers through his messy brown hair as he sucked on her breast, "I have principles. Very, very few, but I do. I never meant to use the contract to force you to have sex with me if you had made it clear that you didn't want me at all. We'd just have a sham marriage. But I'm really happy that you want things between us to be real," she said with a sincere smile.

"I'm tired of trying to resist you. I want you." Ben pulled Charmcaster close and kissed her passionately. Their lips smacked lewdly and loudly, and their tongues danced and wrestled against each other in a quick pace as Ben's hand still played with her breast. When they finally broke the kiss, there was a thin trail of saliva still connecting their mouths.

"It's not very fair that I'm naked and you're still dressed," Charmcaster teased.

Ben quickly took off his rustic woollen shirt - the Tetramands custom clothing - and the silver-haired sorceress gasped, "Wow."

At first, Ben thought she was being sarcastic, because he always had a plain muscular build, but then he looked at himself and realized he in fact had quite a few muscles to show. "I guess the hard training is already showing results. Now that you mentioned it, I had a growth spurt too. I used to be a little bit shorter than Gwen, but now I'm taller than her."

"Not sure if it's just the training or a natural growth spurt. I heard the Omnitrix turns its wielder into a prime version of every specimen it has available. I guess it tweaks the wielder into a prime version of himself too. But what about down there? Was that omni-enhanced too?" the enchantress asked with a sultry smile as she sank to her knees and pulled down Ben's pants. The lad's manhood sprang straight out and slapped against the silver-haired girl's cheek as she gasped, "Wow, I guess the answer to my question is a yes."

A giggling Charmcaster rubbed Ben's 'magical wand' against her cheek. Ben was breathing heavily in anticipation. All that kissing and groping was enough to make him very turned on. He was afraid he was going to unload all his juices at any minute now, "I need... to put it... in your pussy."

"Where are your manners, Ben?" Charmcaster teased.

"Please…"

"Now, that's better," The enchantress planted her lips against the head of his manhood and kissed it softly. She began slowly kissing down, from the head to the base, and then she went back, slowly licking all the way up from base to head, as Ben moaned in pleasure.

Then in one quick motion Charmcaster suddenly plunged Ben's manhood into her mouth and began sucking it hard. Her head was bobbing back and forth as her tongue swirled rapidly around it, "SLURP MMPHHMM SLURP"

"I can't… hold it… much-" Ben started to say, but was interrupted as Charmcaster quickened the pace even more, sucking Ben harder and faster, as if her life depended on it. When her nose touched Ben's groin as she buried his entire member deep inside her throat, Ben let out a guttural scream of pleasure and exploded violently in her mouth.

At first Charmcaster simply let the warm seed pump freely into her mouth, but, as the thick fluid quickly flooded her, she realized it was going to be too much. The girl could no longer maintain her lips tightly around Ben's manhood and the seed leaked from her mouth flowing down her chin. Before she started to choke, the silver-haired sorceress removed her mouth from Ben's member and the next spurts of seed landed on her cheeks, forehead and hair.

Ben couldn't help but to smile proudly at the sight of the silver-haired beauty covered in his man milk.

After swallowing a huge load still in her mouth, Charmcaster could finally speak, "That was an incredible amount of cum," she stated, in a tone that was both playful and perplexed, "A prime specimen indeed."

"And I promise I still have a lot left to fill your pussy," Ben giggled, "Let's go to round two?"

"We need to have a serious conversation first." Charmcaster stood up. She couldn't help but to think how awkward it would be to have a serious conversation while naked and with cum all over her face. "We can't waste time. The sooner you secure the alliance with the Tetramands, the better. If Kevin finds us here before his marriage to Looma is annulled, we're screwed."

Ben scratched his head, "I'm sorry, I know you're probably disappointed, but I promise I'm giving my best at training to get strong enough to challenge Princess Looma."

"I'm definitely not disappointed," she said as she tried to wipe Ben's man milk off her face, "I'm here to help you. I have a solution, a magic trick to boost you and get you stronger…"

"What kind of magic trick?" Ben asked. Then by the look on her face he realized what she was thinking about, "A blood magic trick?"

"Hear me out. They still have quite a few Incursean prisoners waiting to be executed in the arena," Charmcaster said, "I doubt they will care if we borrow one or two for a magical experiment-"

"No," Ben said firmly.

"You're ok with letting those beasts kill them in the arena. Why not let me do it? It will be for a good cause. Heck, it will be a mercy kill! You saw firsthand what those beasts do to them!" Charmcaster argued.

"It's not about them, it's about you." Ben took her hands in his, "I don't want you to have more blood on your hands. And this is not what your father would have wanted for you either, Hope," he said, calling her by her real name.

She rolled her eyes, "You need to wrap your head around something, Ben. We're on the same side, but I'm not good, and I'm never going to be. You need to let me do my thing so I can help you!"

"I will find a way to defeat Princess Looma that won't get your hands dirty, even if I have to train every single day for years. Now, let's finish what we were doing…" Ben leaned in to give her a kiss, but Charmcaster pulled away.

"No. I'm putting you in the doghouse for now," she said.

"What do you mean?" Ben asked.

"No sex until you win the challenge," Charmcaster said, "I'm sure that will be an effective way to make you reconsider your decision. After all, you won't want to wait for years to get laid."

"Come on," Ben protested, "That's not fair!"

"I know it's not. I told you, I'm not good," Charmcaster said with a mischievous smirk.

* * *

The next morning, Ben, Charmcaster and Grandpa Max were having breakfast in the dining hall.

"Cuz, I have great news!" Gwen arrived very excited and hugged Ben tight. Ben couldn't help but to blush as the pretty redhead - his cousin, he had to keep that in mind - pressed her body against his.

Charmcaster noticed that and smirked. She opened her mouth to say something, but remained silent. Ben was certain Charmcaster would tell Gwen about what had happened between them, but it seemed like she was polite enough to leave it up to him. Ben had the feeling that Gwen would react badly when she knew, after all, she wasn't very fond of Charmcaster, but he knew he had to tell her. But first, he could hear what she had to say.

"I finally found a way for you to get the Tetramands on your side that doesn't involve you becoming a barbarian warlord married to Princess Looma," she shivered.

"What is it?" Ben asked puzzled.

"If you have an ally, someone who you can fully trust, that will marry Princess Looma instead of you."

Charmcaster scoffed, "I don't think any Tetramand here is willing to help you with that. Either they aren't strong enough to defeat Looma or they are too afraid of Kevin to try. Besides, even if we could find someone, I wouldn't leave a matter that sensitive in the hands of a middleman. Even after Kevin is gone, if we lose the Tetramands' resources - soldiers and taydenite - it would weaken the Galactic Alliance in the battle against Vilgax - and Vilgax is a much bigger threat than Kevin ever was. As the future President, this alliance with the Tetramands is crucial, Ben."

"Except that Ben doesn't want to be President nor the Omnitrix," Gwen said, "Sorry to spoil things for you, CC. You should give up now, release Ben from the deal and try to hook up with the next wielder."

"No, thanks, I like being your cousin-in-law, Red," Charmcaster smirked, "Besides, I'm pretty sure Ben can't take the Omnitrix off, even if he wanted to."

"We will think about that later," Gwen said, "Anyway, back to the matter at hand. I know the perfect person to marry Princess Looma in your place, Ben: Kabeb. I was talking to him and he confessed he is in love with her."

"Kabeb is a loyal friend and a good warrior, but not good enough to defeat Looma. He told me he already tried it before," Ben said in an apologetic tone.

"That's the thing, he doesn't have to defeat the Princess. I found out that Tetramands' laws allow the use of a proxy for this challenge. You can defeat Looma as Kabeb's proxy," Gwen said very excited, "I'm sure he will be eternally grateful if you help him marry the woman of his dreams and will help you with whatever political backup you need from Khoros."

"I don't want to repeat myself and say that a matter so sensitive shouldn't be left in the hands of a middleman, so I'll say something else," Charmcaster spoke, "You will be putting a giant target on this guy's back. Kevin, and maybe even other warlords, will go after him. And he couldn't complete the trials; he's not ready for this kind of danger."

"We will protect him," Gwen replied, "And anything is better than Ben in an arranged loveless marriage."

"Just because it's an arranged marriage, it doesn't mean it will be loveless," Charmcaster smirked and winked at Ben, referring to their own arrangement that Ben was now more than happy with.

Before Gwen could reply, Grandpa Max, who had been silent until that moment, cleared his throat and said, "I know the girls have different opinions about that, but it's your life, Ben. You should think carefully about it for a while and decide for yourself."

Ben wasn't sure. Charmcaster had raised some valid points. And he - or, to be more specific, Four Arms - was indeed attracted to Looma. But, on the other hand, Kabeb was in love with the Princess and Ben had a way to help his friend get together with her...

* * *

**And most of you probably hate me now, I know. But as I said, I don't want to make the decisions too easy.**

**Choice 1**

**\- Ben fights for himself. If he wins, Four Arms marries Looma.**

**\- Ben fights for Kabeb. If he wins, Kabeb marries Looma.**

**Choice 2**

**\- Allow Charmcaster to kill a Incursean prisoner and use blood magic to boost Ben's strength so he can win the fight against Looma.**

**\- Don't allow Charmcaster to use blood magic. Keep training and try to find some other way to win the fight against Looma.**

**As usual, votes on the poll on my profile (mobile users need to switch to desktop mode, just click on that option on the bottom of the screen) and ten days to vote. Thanks to everybody who is reading/reviewing/favoriting/following this, and thanks to Aurora Nightstar for beta reading.**

**We also have a discord dedicated to Bwen fans. If you want to join, PM me!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Previously…**

_The President of the Galactic Alliance, Kevin Levin, wanted to make Gwen Tennyson part of his harem. However, he's addicted to energy and uses his witch wives as batteries, sucking their mystical energy. To save Gwen from this fate, Ben Tennyson made a deal with Charmcaster, who helped him to steal the Omnitrix from Kevin and escape. Ben, Gwen, Grandpa Max and Charmcaster followed a Tetramand na__med Kabeb to Khoros and the Tetramands agreed to help them against Kevin, however Princess Looma is legally married to Kevin, and the only way to get the Tetramands to switch sides is if her marriage to Kevin is annulled._

* * *

**Results from the last poll:**

**_(Choice 1) Ben fights for himself. If he wins, Four Arms marries Looma: 27 votes._**

_(Choice 1) Ben fights for Kabeb. If he wins, Kabeb marries Looma: 19 votes._

**_(Choice 2) Ben should NOT allow Charmcaster to use blood magic. He should keep training and try to find some other way to win the fight: 39 votes_**

_(Choice 2) Ben should allow Charmcaster to kill an Incursean prisoner and use blood magic to boost his strength so he can win the fight: 9 votes_

* * *

**CHAPTER 6**

* * *

Ben remained silent in deep thought for almost a minute until he saw Kabeb. He gestured for the Tetramand soldier to sit with them at the table for breakfast. After the usual hellos and some small talk, Ben introduced the important subject into the conversation.

"Kabeb, Gwen told me that I could challenge Looma as your proxy. I'm still trying to figure out whether or not I should do it. I wanted to hear from you first," Ben said.

"No, please, don't do that," Kabeb pleaded, and then turned to Gwen, "I was joking when I said that to you. You know I also explained that proxies aren't meant for this."

"I guess Red conveniently left out that part." Charmcaster glanced at Gwen with a scolding look, which Gwen answered with a snort.

"When someone has a disability of some kind, someone else - almost always a relative - fights on their behalf for the bride's hand as a proxy," Kabeb explained. "But a healthy male who asks for a proxy to fight on his behalf would be seen as a joke by his peers. Besides, proxies are only used in marriage challenges of common people. Any challenge by proxy for a warlordess' hand would be unacceptable, much less one for the Overlordess' hand!"

"This whole thing is ridiculous." Gwen sighed heavily. "This marriage fighting challenge is obviously a leftover from an earlier time when Tetramands were even more barbaric - no offense, Kabeb - and males coerced females into staying with them by force. This shouldn't even exist!"

"No offense taken and you're not completely wrong," Kabeb said as he scratched his short mustacheless beard, "But the lines are a bit blurred. Female Tetramands are often stronger than the males. Around here, women usually want a partner who proves their strength in a fight. And they can choose whether or not to accept a challenge."

"And why the heck did Looma choose to accept Kevin's challenge?" Gwen asked, "I recall you said Kevin's forces were losing the war against the Tetramands."

"Leaders are held to a higher standard. If a warlordess refuses a challenge, it would be seen as an admission of weakness by her people. Besides, Princess Looma has many qualities, but humbleness isn't one of them. She thought she could defeat President Kevin," Kabeb explained.

"Anyway, the proxy thing is out of the question then. I'll challenge Looma for myself and hopefully win her hand in marriage," Ben said.

"I have no doubt you will," Kabeb spoke with a warm smile, "Just promise me you will love her."

Ben blushed and smiled awkwardly. Could he promise to love someone he barely knew? "I promise I'll treat the Princess with love and respect," he said, trying to be as honest as possible.

"You can't be serious, Ben." Gwen was taken aback. "I thought you wanted this Omnitrix thing to be temporary and we would try to find a way to take it off after Kevin is defeated. How can Four Arms accept a lifelong commitment like marriage?"

Ben paused in deep thought for nearly a minute. "If I do take off the Omnitrix one day, the Tetramands can consider Four Arms legally dead and Looma will be free to find another nice Tetramand."

"_If_ you take off the Omnitrix? You're going to drink from that cup, huh?" Gwen sighed, disappointed with Ben. "And while you're at it, do you plan on marrying other alien princesses too? Build a harem? You're technically married to Charmcaster as well. Are you two having sex already?" She asked sarcastically.

Gwen glanced at Charmcaster and even though the silver haired witch's lips remained shut, her pink eyes betrayed her.

"Oh my… You two actually did it," Gwen whispered.

"We didn't!" Ben replied immediately. Then he added in an ashamed almost inaudible whisper, "We didn't have _actual _sex… yet..." The way he spoke the words implied an admission that they had already done _things_ and that he wanted to have sex with Charmcaster at some point.

"I think I lost my appetite." Gwen left her plate unfinished and walked away from the table.

"Gwen, wait!" Ben stood up to follow his cousin.

Gwen quickly walked through a corridor back to her chambers. Before she could close the door, Ben positioned himself in the doorframe to stop her.

"What do you want?" Gwen folded her arms.

"To explain myself," Ben said.

"Go ahead then," the redhead said as she tapped her foot on the floor.

Ben scratched his head. He didn't really know what to say.

"It's not like you have to explain yourself to me." Gwen shrugged, visibly upset, "If you want to sleep with an evil witch, a barbarian princess and God knows who else, I can't say I like it, but it's none of my business, right? I'm just your cousin."

"You're not just a cousin to me... You're much more… You are… You are…" he seemed to struggle to find the words. "You are my best friend."

Gwen sighed, "I thought that after we had dealt with Kevin, you'd let someone else apply for the job of President of the Galactic Alliance, and we could have our normal lives again. Maybe even resume our vacations with Grandpa Max." She laughed, remembering the vacations they didn't even have the chance to properly start. It wasn't that long ago, but it seemed a lifetime away now that she was in an alien world. "But it looks like you're enjoying your new life a bit too much to leave it behind, and that's totally ok. I'm not going to tell you what to do with your life. But, after we defeat Kevin, _I'm out_."

Gwen shoved Ben out of her chambers, not giving him a chance to say anything else.

* * *

Onboard the same ship in which they came to Khoros, Ben, Gwen, Grandpa Max, Charmcaster and Kabeb were flying towards the places where they could find the Taydenite they were looking for.

"It took me around one year to gather the amount of Taydenite needed to challenge for Looma's hand in the past, but with all of us, I'm sure we can get it done in less-" Kabeb began to say.

"One year?" Ben's eyes widened, "No, Kevin is looking for us, we don't have that much time. There's gotta be a faster way."

Kabeb gritted his teeth nervously, "There are multiple locations in Khoros where Taydenite can be found. Unfortunately, the more dangerous the area, the more Taydenite you can find. For example, in the great deserts we can find in hours an amount of Taydenite that would take months to find in another place but…"

"To the great deserts we go then," Ben interrupted him.

"Please, don't! Every ten Tetramands that venture there, one comes back very rich, while the other nine don't come back at all. The Sand Rippers that dwell there eat Tetramands and I'm sure they'd love to get a taste of Earthlings too," Kabeb warned.

"Sand Rippers?" Charmcaster asked.

"The most dangerous beasts in all of Khoros, at least in my opinion. The reason they are so dangerous is because they swim in the red sands and it's almost impossible to know where they are. They only jump out of the sand to hunt their prey, when it's too late to do anything," Kabeb explained with a fearful look on his face, "Unlike every other beast, there's no way to defend yourself against a Sand Ripper."

"No worries." Ben shrugged. "I'll use Diamondhead. Any Sand Ripper that tries to eat me will get the biggest toothache ever."

"You don't know how durable their teeth are. Even though you named your Petrosapien form 'Diamondhead', he's not made of actual diamonds. He can be broken," Gwen pointed out, "Also... Kabeb, how big are these Sand Rippers?"

"Big enough to swallow me whole," the Tetramand answered.

"Imagine one of them eats Diamondhead. Even if you survive and Diamondhead can kill the beast inside out, its belly would still be your coffin, buried under tons of sand." Gwen said.

"Heh, you got a point." Ben scratched his head. "But this is still our best option."

"Kabeb, you said that every ten Tetramands that go explore these deserts, nine die and only one comes back. What skills did this one Tetramand have that the other nine didn't?" Gwen asked.

"In my opinion, it has nothing to do with skills." Kabeb folded his arms. "The one that comes back is just luckier than the nine that don't."

"I'm the person for the job then," Gwen said.

Ben tried to protest, and they argued for a few minutes, but in the end, Ben had no arguments to counter Gwen and he had to concede. It was also too dangerous to spend months gathering Taydenite while Kevin was after them. He was the one who said that. And she had a magical aura of luck that could help her in the deserts in a way that none of Ben's ten aliens could help him.

Gwen equipped herself with the Taydenite Finder, a device that looked like a vacuum cleaner. It had magnetic properties capable of attracting nearby fragments of Taydenite in the midst of the sand. According to Kabeb, this was the only piece of technology that President Kevin bothered to share with Tetramands, obviously because it helped increase the quantity of Taydenite they could get for him."

They landed in a small rocky mountain in the middle of the desert, and Gwen exited the ship. The beautiful redhead focused and welcomed the familiar sensation of coziness as her magical aura enveloped her body from head to toe.

She then graciously jumped from the rocky structure to the red sands - the luck aura also enhanced her agility and other natural skills. She turned the Taydenite Finder on, and it wasn't long before small shards of the precious material started filling the bag of the device.

The first creature Gwen found in the desert wasn't a Sand Ripper, but a giant spider. At the sight of the beast, the redhead momentarily froze in fear due to her arachnophobia. However, before the spider could get near her, an unlikely savior came to her rescue, a terrifying Sand Ripper. It only jumped out of the sand for a couple seconds, to attack the spider, but Gwen could see that the Sand Ripper was a bulky olive-green creature with a distinctive row of spines reaching from its heads to the bases of its neck. It had wide gills along the bottoms of its neck, as well as narrow red eyes. Its prominent teeth made quick work of the giant spider, and Gwen even felt sorry for the victim.

She knew the spider might have been the Sand Ripper's lunch, and she definitely didn't want to be the dessert, so she kept still for several minutes, with her luck aura fully activated, hoping that the Sand Ripper, now once again swimming under the red sands, would go away.

The redhead could see their ship following her high above, obviously not very close so the noise wouldn't attract a Sand Ripper. It was nice to know that Ben and Grandpa were keeping an eye on her from above, and she waved to let them know she was ok.

* * *

"So," Charmcaster whispered to Ben while he kept his eyes glued to binoculars, watching his redhead cousin collect Taydenite, "Have you thought about my proposal to make a potion to get you strong enough to fight Looma?"

"If you figure out a way to prepare this potion without using blood magic, I will consider it," Ben replied.

"Sometimes you're too good for your own good." Charmcaster rolled her eyes. "But why care about collecting the Taydenite fast then? You are not ready to face Looma now."

"I actually figured out another way. Grey Matter. My Galvan form would never defeat Looma in combat, but I think he can plan a strategy to make Four Arms defeat her. I just have to watch Looma's training as Grey Matter so he can analyze her strengths and weaknesses," Ben said without taking his eyes off the binoculars.

"Well, it might work…" Charmcaster said after thinking about it for a few seconds. "If you combine your strategy with my potion, then it would definitely work. Better be safe than sorry, because if you lose, in order to try again we'd have to collect all the Taydenite we need again."

"I won't lose," Ben said with a confident smile.

* * *

After a couple of hours collecting Taydenite, Gwen saw a small rocky mountain nearby and decided to make another stop. She climbed on the rocky structure. Feeling safe, she turned off her aura to rest as she drank a bottle of water.

"Good to go, Pumpkin?" Grandpa Max asked through the comms.

"Almost there, Grandpa," Gwen replied, "I think we'll have enough if I search for a few more-"

"Gwen, behind you!" She heard Ben's voice through the comms. When she turned around, she saw a couple of two-headed spiders moving towards her. They were the same size as dogs, not even comparable to the big one from before that was the size of a car, but they were still _spiders_. The redhead stumbled in fear and fell from the rocky structure to the sands, skinning her elbow in the process.

It all happened so fast. She felt her elbow hurting, and she made the mistake to stop to look at it. A second later she remembered that she was on the sand, vulnerable to a Sand Ripper attack, and immediately activated her luck aura, but it was one second too late. The next thing she saw was a giant creature emerging from the sand with its huge mouth open wide to devour her. The teeth closed in and then everything went dark.

* * *

While Grandpa Max, Charmcaster and Kabeb were still in shock, Ben immediately jumped off the ship in midair. As he fell - from a height that would surely kill any human - he slammed the watch to turn himself into Diamondhead.

After he landed, Diamondhead screamed like a mad man in an obvious attempt to attract the Sand Ripper to himself. And it worked. Mere seconds later, the Sand Ripper emerged again and devoured Diamondhead.

Inside the stomach of the beast, Gwen was surprised when she heard the sounds of something else coming in so soon and wondered who or what was the Sand Ripper's next victim. Her eyes were still adjusting to the darkness so she couldn't see very well.

"Gwen! Gwen! Are you here? Please tell me I wasn't eaten by the wrong Sand Ripper," Diamondhead yelled.

"Ben, what are you doing here?" Gwen was shocked.

"Thank God! I'm saving you, Dweeb, duh!" Diamondhead said as he walked towards the sound of her voice, "What the crap is that?" he asked, as he realized he was basically walking inside a pool, but instead of water, it was some strange liquid that covered him up to his waist.

"I'm pretty sure it's the beast's gastric acid. I bet that in a couple of hours it will dissolve us," Gwen replied, "As much as I appreciate your gesture, you shouldn't have done it, Doofus. Now we both are going to die instead of just me."

"No way. Hold onto me," Diamondhead picked Gwen up, so she could mount on his back in a piggyback ride, "My crystal skin is probably more resistant to the acid. Now turn on your luck aura so we can find a miraculous way to get out of here."

"My aura is already on. But it doesn't work the way you think it does. It's already a miracle that we were swallowed whole rather than chewed, but-" Gwen began to say.

"Speak for yourself, Dweeb. I lost an arm," Diamondhead said.

Now that Gwen's eyes were starting to adjust to the darkness, she saw that Diamondhead's right arm was missing. Thankfully, she also noticed it was slowly growing back.

"Yeah, you were right, their teeth can pierce through Diamondhead's skin. It hurt like hell, but I will be ok. Now, what's the plan, lucky girl?" Diamondhead asked.

"There's isn't one. There's nothing we-"

_"Pumpkin, can you hear me?"_ Grandpa's voice was heard through the comms.

"Hi, Grandpa. Glad to know the comms still work from here," Gwen replied.

"Lucky you, right?" Diamondhead smiled.

_"Thank God you're alive."_ She could hear the relief on Grandpa's voice. _"Ben, he-"_

"He's here too," Gwen began, still mounted on Diamondhead's back, "But there's nothing we can do. I'm sorry, Grandpa."

_"Just wait, I'll think of something,"_ Grandpa said, and the comms went silent after that.

"Wait. We can do that," Diamondhead said, trying not to think about how his legs were starting to tingle thanks to the effects of the beasts' gastric acid and praying for the watch not to time-out, because he knew the pain was going to be so much worse - and he wouldn't be able to protect Gwen from it.

"Ben, if we die here, I want to tell you-"

"Save it," Diamondhead said, "We're not dying today. Whatever you want to tell me, it can wait until we're safely back at the Tetramands' pyramid."

_"Kids, can you find the creature's heart?"_ Grandpa Max asked through the comms, interrupting their conversation, _"And can Diamondhead pierce it?"_

"Grandpa, even if we kill it now, we'd still be buried under tons of sand, remember?" Gwen argued.

_"That's where I come in to save your butts,"_ Charmcaster said, _"My stone golems will make a mess on the surface. Hopefully, it will attract the Sand Ripper's attention. The moment the beast comes up to the surface for them, Diamondhead goes in for the kill."_

"Wait," Gwen said, "How can we be sure that the Sand Ripper that will come to the surface will be the same one that ate me and Ben?"

_"Sand Rippers are territorial creatures. Unless it's mating season, it's unlikely to find multiple of them in the same area."_ They heard Kabeb's voice through the comms. _"It's also not a coincidence that the same creature ate both of you."_ Of course, Ben didn't know that when he jumped off the ship.

_"Prepare yourselves and wait for our signal,"_ Grandpa Max said.

"Can you hear the heartbeats coming from that direction, Ben?" Gwen asked.

"Yes," Diamondhead produced a thick and large crystal spear and positioned himself to stab the beast's heart through a flesh wall. "I think we're good."

Less than two minutes later, they felt the beast starting to move and Grandpa Max yelled, _"NOW!"_

Diamondhead dug the spear deep into the flesh wall, successfully piercing the beast's heart. They felt the entire stomach twisting and turning, but after a while it all stopped. The Sand Ripper was dead.

With a crystal spear, Diamondhead dug the way out through the beast's insides and after a while they were once again outside on the surface. Right after that, the watch timed out, turning Diamondhead back into Ben. He took a look at his right arm and breathed a sigh of relief to see that it was there.

The ship landed next to them and as soon as Ben and Gwen got onboard it took off, to far above the dangerous red sands - Kabeb said that it was unlikely to have other Sand Rippers that close, but nobody wanted to stick around long enough to find out.

Grandpa Max hugged both Ben and Gwen very tight, almost suffocating the cousins, "Never scare me like that again, kids!"

"Did we survive the Sand Ripper just to die by a hug?" Gwen jokingly said as she gasped for air.

"Sorry." Grandpa finally let them go. "I'm just glad you two are ok."

"I'd give you two a hug as well, but you are stinking worse than a Lepidopterran," Charmcaster said with a smile.

Then Gwen turned to Ben. She was blushing heavily. "Thank you, Ben. I really appreciate what you did. I'd be dead if it weren't for you. I owe you."

Gwen couldn't help but to feel thousands of butterflies in her stomach. And that made things so much harder… She tried not to think about it.

"The only reason you were out there mining Taydenite in the first place was to help me. You owe me nothing," Ben shrugged.

"Wait, what about all the Taydenite I collected?" Gwen asked, "It's in the bag of the Taydenite Finder and I left it on that rocky mountain. We need to go back."

"Don't worry, we already retrieved it while you two were digging your way out of the dead beast," Kabeb said from the pilot seat.

"Still, we're a little bit short of the amount of Taydenite we need… I do need to go back and-" Gwen began.

"No way!" Ben and Grandpa Max said at the same time.

"Well, when I collected Taydenite to challenge for Looma a while ago, I got a little bit more than I needed," Kabeb said, "I think I can probably complete the amount you need."

"Thank you, Kabeb. I promise we will repay you later," Grandpa Max said.

During the flight back, Ben and Gwen occupied seats distant from each other, but Ben couldn't stop glancing at Gwen awkwardly and then looking away the second her eyes met his. But then he would look at her again, to make sure she was there, that she was alive. He was still in shock as he couldn't believe how close he came to losing her…

Charmcaster sat next to Ben, "What you did for her, risking your life like that, was really beautiful," and then she added in a whisper, "Would you have done the same for me?"

The question took Ben by surprise. He was about to answer but Charmcaster interrupted him before he got the chance.

"I'm sorry, I was just thinking out loud." Charmcaster bit her lips. "It's wasn't a fair question. I mean, you've known her since forever, and me only for a few weeks. Besides, I'm a criminal, not a lovable person like her."

"Yes. My answer is yes, I would do the same for you," Ben said.

"You know what a lady wants to hear. I will give you that." Charmcaster smiled tenderly.

"Hey, I meant it!" Ben protested as he realized her tone implied that he said that only to please her.

"Shhhh, I was just rambling. Let's table this," Charmcaster said and then lowered her voice. "I want to talk about something else. I think you should confess your feelings to Gwen already."

"What feelings?" Ben said, also making sure to keep his voice down. "I don't like her that way. I'm her cou-"

"Come on!" Charmcaster rolled her eyes. "Are you trying to lie to me or to yourself?"

Ben took a deep breath and then whispered, "I get that you want me to be with Looma because it makes sense from a political standpoint, but why would you want me and Gwen together?"

"It was painfully obvious how devastated you were at breakfast after talking to her. I'm guessing things didn't go well even though you didn't say anything. And I'd rather share you with her than fix the broken mess that you would become if she leaves," Charmcaster said, "I mean, she told you she's leaving right? That's the only thing I could think of that would affect you that much."

Ben sighed, "She said she'll leave after we defeat Kevin."

"That's why you should tell her you love her already, so she stays with you," Charmcaster said.

"What? That would be the fastest way to push her away from me once and for all! At least we still have a family bond, but if I tell her, even that will be ripped to shreds!" Ben said, lowering his voice even more. "What I need to do is to get over her. Do you really think it's a good idea to ask my own cousin to be part of a harem alongside you, Looma and possibly others? Maybe she will accept it just because I saved her life today, is that what you're thinking?"

"No, that's not what I'm thinking, you… I can see why she calls you Doofus." Charmcaster smacked Ben in the arm. "I'm thinking that she has a big crush on you, but all that she knows is that you're going to get together with me, Looma and possibly others, so she assumes you don't care that much for her, and that she will always be just a friend/cousin to you. Today, however, she saw that you would give your own life for her. Now, tell her how you truly feel, and let her decide what she wants you two to be."

"I will consider it," Ben said as he once again glanced in Gwen's direction.

* * *

**Ben should...**

**1) Confess his feelings to Gwen.**

**2) Try to get over his feelings for Gwen.**

_Sorry about another relationship-based decision. _**_The poll is on my profile and mobile users need to switch to desktop mode to find it. T_****_his poll will last for five days_**_ rather than the usual ten days. _

Thanks to Aurora Nightstar for beta reading, and to all readers who are reviewing/favoriting/following/voting on the polls.


	7. Chapter 7

**Results from the last poll: ****Ben should...**

**Confess his feelings to Gwen - 34 votes**

**Get over his feelings for Gwen - 0 votes**

**"Flawless victory" XD**

* * *

Ben's first idea was to sneak around in secret to watch Princess Looma's training as Grey Matter. But what if the Omnitrix timed out all of a sudden and he was caught spying? What would Looma do to him?

It was Grandpa Max who gave the best suggestion, which was also the simplest one, "Why don't you ask if you can watch her training?"

Surprisingly, he was informed by the royal guards that while Looma asked to not interact with Ben before their fight, she had no problem with him simply being present during her training sessions. For a few days, Ben - or better, Grey Matter - watched Princess Looma train, analyzing her from head to toe, and soon Grey Matter had a combat strategy to defeat Looma as Four Arms.

* * *

The arena was crowded with people looking forward to the fight between Looma and the mysterious challenger who was only identified as "Four Arms". Mysterious indeed, because the public had no idea about who he was and had no clue that he was the Wielder of the Omnitrix. He had even covered the Omnitrix plate under traditional Tetramand clothing.

If he were to win, though, the secrecy wouldn't matter. As soon as President Kevin was aware that Looma had a new husband – Wielder of the Omnitrix or not –, he'd want to kill him and make Looma a widow so he could marry her again – not that Kevin cared about Looma herself, but losing her also meant losing Tetramand soldiers and Taydenite, and that he cared about.

However, if Ben were to lose – not that he was planning to – it would be for the best if he didn't expose himself. Kevin would probably find out that an unknown challenger tried to get Looma's hand, but that would be the end of it. Per Ben's request, Grandpa Max, Gwen and Charmcaster weren't there, only Kabeb was sitting on the bleachers.

Kabeb wasn't the only one rooting for him though; very loud "Four Arms" chants erupted from the crowd. They wanted him to win as none of them wanted to have Kevin as their Overlord anymore and they were impressed by his bravery of possibly putting himself on a collision course with Kevin.

Before their fight, he and Looma stared at each other face to face, eye to eye. Four Arms could still feel something between them, the attraction that he could swear was mutual, and he wanted to kiss Looma, not fight her – damn Tetramand hormones.

"You're not ready for this. I will defeat you now, so Kevin doesn't kill you later." Those were the cold words that Looma spoke to him.

"We'll see about that," he smirked in a cocky manner.

He even thought he'd go easy on her since he wasn't comfortable fighting a woman, but within the initial first few seconds of the fight he quickly realized that he'd lose very fast if he didn't fight with everything he had. As the old saying goes, "In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice; but in practice, there is." Grey Matter knew precisely what to do, but Four Arms didn't. He tried to follow the plan, but it wasn't that easy. Her punches hit him way more times than he planned and his weren't hitting her as many times as he thought they should.

The fight was evenly matched as they traded blows until Four Arms finally found the opening to hit the perfect combo that Grey Matter had previously planned out, the sequence of surgical punches and kicks that would take Princess Looma down. She fell on the ground and the referee started the count to make the knockout official. That was supposed to be the end of it...

…But Looma stood up right before the count ended.

"Well, I still have the advantage," Four Arms thought, "That attack surely took its toll on her. I just need to do it one more time and-" but then the watch started beeping, "Oh crap."

Four Arms turned into Ben to the crowd's absolute shock.

"Princess, I think we both could use a five-minute break. What do you say?" Ben let out a nervous laugh.

"Your enemies would never give you a break," the Tetramand Overlordess said right before charging at him, "I won't use my full strength, though. I don't want to kill you, just knock you out."

Ben impressively dodged her attacks once and again a second time but wasn't so lucky the third time. Instinctively, he put his hand over his face for protection and Looma's fist ended up slamming his watch hard.

Sparks jumped out of the Omnitrix and Ben panicked as he thought the watch was going to explode. However, to his astonishment, a transformation was triggered, and there he was in a brand-new form: a big red Tetramand, but with a Kineceleran tail, helmet and legs. He still had four arms, but his fists now had talons like Kinecelerans'. He gasped as he realized that he was turned into a Tetramand-Kineceleran hybrid.

He didn't waste any time. He charged at Looma combining strength and speed. He noticed he wasn't as strong as a full Tetramand and wasn't as fast as a full Kineceleran, but the combination was definitely powerful and this time, after he hit Looma with another combo, she wasn't able to stand up before the count ended. The referee declared him the winner of the match as the crowd erupted in cheers.

After a short celebration, the watch timed out again – with this fusion, the Omnitrix timed out faster than with a normal transformation.

Ben went to check up on Looma. Once she was able to stand up, she picked him up on her arms and lifted him. Ben closed his eyes waiting for the worse as he thought she was mad at him, but much to his surprise, he felt her lips crashing on his.

* * *

Looma's attitude towards Ben completely changed after the fight. While before she kept her distance and barely spoke to him, now she happily stuck to his side at every chance she got, like during the meeting later that day to decide how to handle the current situation.

Before that day, Ben's presence there was only known to a few people of Looma's absolute trust, but now that the public had seen Ben not only defeat Looma, but also change from Tetramand to human to a Tetramand/Kineceleran hybrid, it was inevitable that all of Khoros and then Kevin would soon get word that the Wielder of the Omnitrix was there and had the Tetramands on his side.

"I will call back to Khoros all Tetramands who were previously assigned to work for President Kevin," Looma said as she gently caressed Ben's arm.

"Your Majesty, I think Kevin might very well arrest or even kill them if they try to defect," Grandpa Max said.

"He would lose at least ten soldiers for each Tetramand he tries to kill. We are the best warriors in the galaxy." While she was probably exaggerating a bit out of racial pride, Tetramands were indeed universally recognized as great warriors. "If he doesn't want to suffer heavy losses, he will let my people leave peacefully."

"I'm also afraid we should expect an attack here in Khoros soon," Grandpa Max added.

"Let them come. We are prepared." Now it was Gar Red Wind - Looma's father's - turn to speak, "The last time Kevin tried to attack us, he had to challenge the Overlordess in combat because his armies couldn't conquer our planet. We have enough stocked food; our pyramids are nearly impenetrable fortresses and the beasts out there are a huge problem for our enemies. If he tries to attack, he will fail again."

"He will have extra motivation this time, though, because he needs the Omnitrix more than anything," Charmcaster pointed out.

Ben gulped. He was extremely disturbed as he realized that many Tetramands could die because of him. He didn't want to put them in danger. "What if I leave the planet? I mean, Kevin knows that once he kills me, he could just challenge Looma again later. And since he also knows that killing Tetramands defectors and launching an attack at Khoros would bring heavy casualties to him, maybe there's a chance that he'd just focus on me and leave you guys alone for now."

"My beloved, no!" Looma grabbed Ben's arm so tight that it almost hurt him. "Where would you go? You'd be exposed out there. Kevin is our enemy too. We're tired of paying high taxes of Taydenite and sending soldiers to serve someone who doesn't care about us. I admire your selflessness but let us fight."

"We don't have to fight now," Charmcaster said, and on an unrelated note Ben could swear that she looked a little bit jealous of Looma's closeness to him. "We could gather more allies first. Maybe leaving isn't a bad idea."

It was decided that Ben's departure should be a big public ceremony. Gwen, Charmcaster and Max, however, would leave in secret – as they weren't seen in public yet, it was best to keep it that way, so Kevin would assume that Gwen and Max were hiding somewhere with the rest of the Tennyson family, Charmcaster was with her uncle and Ben was traveling alone. And if needed, the 'Omni-Team' could go back to Khoros in secret later and hide.

"Do you want to go with us?" Ben asked Looma as he knew that any caring husband would like to have his wife at his side. Kevin had hurt Looma's feelings when he made it clear that his marriage to her was just a matter of convenience and never gave her the option to live with him, so Ben was determined to be different. However, Ben also knew that Looma had her duties as Overlordess to her people, so he wasn't sure she'd want to leave.

"I'm pleased you asked me that. I want to be with you, my beloved, but I also need to be here for my people… I don't know…" Looma trailed off, not being able to answer the question. After a few seconds of silence, she once again caressed Ben's arm and spoke, "Do you really need to leave so soon? Kevin left Khoros right after he won the challenge. If you were to do the same, it would make a bad impression. I think my beloved should show the people that you care about them. Walk among them, visit their homes, talk to them, get to know them. And… I wanted a wedding ceremony too..." She added, and Ben was sure she was blushing even though her skin was naturally red.

"Well, even if Kevin already found out about Ben, the earliest his ships can arrive in Khoros is ten days from now," Kabeb said. Since he had worked as part of Kevin's guard, he knew the nearest places from where Kevin could launch an attack and how long it would take to get from these places to Khoros with the fastest ships the Galactic Alliance had.

"We can work with that," Princess Looma said, "My beloved, you have three days to enjoy as you wish, but I'd advise you to get to know the people. We wed on the fourth day, and we arrange the departure for the morning after our wedding night."

Ben gulped at the mention of the wedding night. He knew he just had to change into Four Arms and let the Tetramand hormones take over, but he still was a bit nervous since he hadn't done it before. Well, it was the least - and probably the most pleasant - of his worries at the moment.

* * *

After the first day of Ben's "meet and greet" with the common people of Khoros, he returned crestfallen and sad. During dinner, Grandpa Max questioned him about it, "What happened Ben? If the Tetramands dislike you, give them time, they might be a little wary of outsiders and-"

"No, it's not that," Ben sighed, "They like me. More than that, as the Wielder of the Omnitrix some of them look at me as if I was an angel. They ask me to heal them… A little kid who can't walk, a blind woman, an injured soldier... I really wish one of my aliens could do something for them. I feel so powerless."

They all stayed silent for almost a minute, when Gwen finally had an idea, "The wizards can help us heal these people."

Charmcaster laughed. "That's the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. You really don't know anything about the wizard community, Red. They would never help."

Gwen felt offended, "Not everyone is selfish like you, Charmcaster. You should know that once Grandpa Max was bitten in the leg by a Null Void monster and got a pretty nasty alien infection. The doctors thought they would have to amputate the leg, but I told my Grandma Verdona about it. She gave Grandpa Max a healing potion and he had a full recovery."

Charmcaster stared at Max dumbfounded, "Ben told me that Verdona is Gwen's grandmother from her mother's side of the family. I thought Verdona had no connection to you, Max."

Grandpa Max blushed redder than a tomato, "That's correct. Me and Verdona did get to know each other after my son married her daughter, though."

Charmcaster smirked mischievously, "You got to know each other in a very, very deep level then."

"Shut up!" Gwen said, not missing the obvious implication of Charmcaster's words.

"Red, wizards don't help people outside their community unless it's a very special case, like your Grandpa," Charmcaster said.

"They can't help, not with Kevin in power, since he persecutes them," Gwen argued.

"Kevin has been around for about one hundred years. The wizards have been around for thousands of years. Even before Kevin, they were never keen on helping anyone from outside." Charmcaster shrugged, "But go ahead, ask your grandma. I bet whatever you want that her answer will be no."

* * *

Gwen and Ben had magical mirrors to communicate with their families back on Earth. Later in her chambers, Gwen recited the Latin words and the mirror started glowing to call her parents.

"Hi, sweetie," Natalie said not long after, "Have you thought about my offer to stay with us?"

Gwen rolled her eyes. There wasn't one day that her mother wouldn't ask her to leave Ben and stay with them under the protection of the wizards. "You already know my answer, mom, it's still the same when you asked me that yesterday. But now, could I please talk to Grandma Verdona?"

When Gwen first manifested her magical powers when she was ten years old, Verdona wanted to take her under her wing and make her part of the wizard community, while Natalie wanted her to have a normal life, just like Natalie herself had chosen to blend in with normal humans rather than to live with the wizard community. Verdona tried to convince Gwen to leave her home to stay with her, and that caused a big rift between Natalie and Verdona, with Natalie practically forbidding Verdona from seeing Gwen. However, now with her parents hiding under the protection of the wizards, things between her mother and grandmother had patched up and they all were talking again.

A minute later, Verdona appeared. "Baby girl, I'm glad you called. I needed to talk to you as well. Your mother told me you are not going to stay with Ben after Kevin is dealt with."

"Only if Ben decides to pursue the President thing, but I really hope he doesn't. I just want the both of us to have our normal lives back when this is all over," Gwen said.

Verdona nodded, "Well, in case you and Ben go separate ways, the wizards still want a… liaison… with him, someone who can be a bridge between the President of the Galactic Alliance and our community."

"Liaison?" Gwen arched her eyebrows as she felt Verdona was hiding something.

"The community wants Ben to marry a witch," Verdona blurted it out, "I proposed a candidate..."

"Hi, Gwendy! Long time no see, cuz," Gwen heard a voice she hadn't heard in a long time... Sunny.

Other than the fact that Sunny's hair was black and her eyes were dark blue, she and Gwen could easily pass as twins – not that much of a coincidence, since Sunny's mother and Gwen's mother were identical twin sisters – but their looks was the end of their similarities.

Gwen gritted her teeth as she and Sunny had some serious issues. Their breaking point was a karate tournament a couple of years ago. One of the matches was supposed to be Gwen versus Sunny. Earlier that day, Sunny wished Gwen good luck and handed her a candy… with laxative. Sunny won the tournament while Gwen couldn't even participate. Sunny later denied that she had anything to do with Gwen's sudden 'sickness', but both of them knew better.

"You want Sunny to marry Ben, grandma?" Gwen said, not even trying to hide her displeasure at the idea, "She will be cheating on him left and right."

"Isn't Ben going to have other wives too? I'm sure he will understand if I want to have some fun with- Ouch." Sunny felt Verdona slap the back of her head. "It was just a joke, Grandma!"

Verdona sighed, "Honestly, you would be my first choice to marry him, Gwen-"

"Grandma!" Sunny protested.

"But since you and Ben are cousins, I assumed you wouldn't be comfortable with the idea. So, I suggested Sunny. I convinced the others that Sunny would be the ideal candidate because things would go easier if we proposed to Ben a marriage to someone that he is already friends with rather than with a girl he doesn't know."

"Friends?" Gwen arched her eyebrow. "Sunny isn't Ben's friend. They're barely acquaintances."

"That's what I need your help with, Sweetie," Verdona said, "Ben knows Sunny through you. And I know you and she had some... differences… in the past. I'm afraid Ben might not accept marrying her because he might think it would upset you."

"I would be pretty upset if he married her, yes," Gwen said bitterly.

"Come on, Gwendy. Let bygones be bygones. We're cousins, practically sisters and best friends forever!" Sunny's words sounded very fake to Gwen.

"Baby girl, believe me, every high-ranking wizard wants the privilege of having a daughter or granddaughter or niece married to the President of the Galactic Alliance. I just wanted it to be someone from our family. Please, talk to Ben. Do it for your grandma," Verdona pleaded with a smile.

"I'll think about it," Gwen said, even though she had already made up her mind to oppose that, "I have a request for you too, Grandma. I need healing potions."

"Is anyone hurt?" Verdona asked worriedly.

"Not for us. It's for the Tetramands. I think a lot of people here could be healed with potions," Gwen explained.

"Oh!" Verdona scratched her cheek. "Baby girl, we don't have enough potions to heal every sick person on Khoros."

"I understand. Maybe we could arrange to send some Tetramands to learn from the wizards how to prepare the potions themselves, so the wizards only have to give it their magical touch later," Gwen proposed.

"That's… complex, sweetie. And I don't think people here would be open to share their secrets with outsiders. I'm really sorry," Verdona apologized.

* * *

Later, Gwen decided to go to one of the bathing chambers to clean herself and also to relax. She had too much hanging over her head: Sunny wanting to marry Ben, and the near-death experience of being eaten by a Sand Ripper. If Ben hadn't saved her… She didn't want to think about these things, so she just closed her eyes and enjoyed the water as she lost track of time. Eventually, she heard steps, so she finally opened her eyes again and saw Charmcaster - completely naked. The silver haired witch let loose her hair that was previously tied in a ponytail and then nonchalantly joined Gwen in the bath.

"Can't you take your bath somewhere else?" Gwen asked a bit annoyed.

"No, I need to talk to you. We getting to see each other naked is just a nice and very welcome bonus," the silver-haired witch said with a wink.

"Your 'charm' might work on Ben, but it doesn't work on me. And careful, keep flirting around and you might find yourself without your precious magical contract with my cousin. You should remember that clause he added," Gwen said it as a stern warning. Then she smirked, "On second thought, I think I might just kiss you. A small sacrifice to break that contract."

"Kiss me then," Charmcaster said with a smug face, "The clause specifically said that I'm forced to terminate the contract if I get involved with another _man_. You're not a man," the silver-haired witch said with another wink, "And I doubt Ben would mind you and me getting together as long as he doesn't get left out."

Gwen rolled her eyes in annoyance. She knew asking Charmcaster to leave was pointless, so she just changed the subject.

"You were right, you know. About the wizards," Gwen admitted.

"Things are what they are." Charmcaster just shrugged.

They remained silent for almost a minute after that, until Charmcaster spoke again, "You know, Red, I envy you. While I was being used like a battery by Kevin, the only thing I could think about is 'where is Uncle Hex? Why isn't he trying to save me?' You don't know how lucky you are to have someone like Ben who is willing to risk his life for you without any hesitation or second thoughts… Imagine my surprise when I found out that if he wants to be President after we deal with Kevin, you're going to leave him. I thought you loved him, but I was clearly wrong," Charmcaster stated.

"I love my cousin more than anything, unlike you who is ready to jump into bed with him now but would discard him like dross if he were to give up that watch!" Gwen replied bitterly.

"I admit my interest in Ben might have been only political at first, but I have real feelings for him now." Then she lowered her voice, "Ben is brave, he has principles, and he actually cares about me. I actually see a lot of my father in him, which kinda sucks, because my father died for being too good."

Gwen was surprised to see Charmcaster opening up and could sense the sincerity of her words. She was about to say something, but then Charmcaster shook her head, as if to come back to 'business' mode, and spoke again, "You're right about something, though. If Ben loses the Omnitrix I can't stay with him. I have many enemies. It would be a risk for us to be together unless he can defend himself. Also, I'm a wanted criminal, unless we'd live as fugitives, he needs enough political influence to keep me out of jail," then she asked, "But why can't you stay with him if he keeps the Omnitrix and becomes the President?"

"The burden of ruling the Galactic Alliance, dealing with the threat of the Vilgaxian Empire, lots of crazy wives… I definitely don't want to go through it, and I don't want Ben to go through it either. We both would be better off living normal lives."

"First of all, you do know that if there's no one to lead the Galactic Alliance against Vilgax, after the first week of Vilgax's rule we all would be missing Kevin."

"Someone else will step up," Gwen said.

"You don't know that," Charmcaster stated, "And about the wives… do you think I don't feel a bit of jealousy too? I do! But it's a small compromise and the pros far outweighs the cons. You know history: all the kings of the past had multiple wives and arranged marriages are important to secure political alliances. Ben is in a higher position than any ancient king ever was and needs all the allies he can get. And we basically get to be the queens of the galaxy, you honestly don't want that?"

"First of all, I don't like Ben in that way, and I don't want to marry him. And answering to your question, no, I wouldn't give a crap about being a so-called queen of the galaxy," Gwen replied, "This is what Sunny wants, not me."

"Who's Sunny?" Charmcaster arched her eyebrows.

"Sorry, I can't get her out of my head. Sunny is my cousin on my mother's side. I dislike her as much as I dislike you," Gwen said bitterly.

Charmcaster pouted, "I'm jealous now. I thought I was your best frenemy. What did Sunny do to you?"

"Lots of things, including but not limited to making me get sick so she could win a competition. But it's still not as bad as, you know, you making Kevin go after me and then blackmail Ben to help us out of the situation you put us through, so I guess you trump her. To your credit, though, Sunny had a good upbringing. If she had been raised by Hex, I have no doubt that she would be far worse than you," Gwen said.

"Hey, I'd never mess with a family member just to win a stupid competition. Family is sacred to me and what she did was pretty low," Charmcaster said, "But why did she pop up on your mind all of a sudden now?"

"My grandma Verdona wants Sunny to marry Ben," Gwen sighed.

"We can't let that happen," Charmcaster pleaded in an almost desperate tone.

"Why are you so worried?" Gwen asked a bit surprised, "You are willing to share Ben and you two would probably get along well. Unlike me, Sunny would be on your side on all the morally gray stuff, like killing guards rather than just knocking them out."

"The wizard community considers me a criminal, Red. Once they know I'm with Ben, they won't like it. What if they ask Sunny to make sure I suffer an 'accident'? If she made her own cousin get sick for petty reasons, what wouldn't she do to me?" Charmcaster asked filled with worry.

"Maybe we both can try to convince Ben to refuse any marriage proposals from Sunny then," Gwen said as she realized she and Charmcaster had another common goal besides defeating Kevin.

After a few minutes of the girls just bathing in silence, Charmcaster spoke again, "Are you sure you wouldn't want to be a President's Lady? I'm not talking about what your feelings for Ben are or about the prestige and ego inflation that comes with being a galactic queen. Forget all of that. Just imagine all the good you could do for the galaxy from that position."

"Do you honestly want me to believe that you care about doing good for the galaxy?" Gwen scoffed.

"I never said that I do. I'm in it for personal reasons and I admit it." Charmcaster shrugged. "But do _you_ care about doing good for the galaxy? The responsibility and the burden sucks, I know, but are you sure you would want to go back to your normal life when you have the unique opportunity to stay and actually change the universe for the better?"

Gwen remained silent as she realized Charmcaster had a point. She knew how frustrated she was when she realized the wizards wouldn't help the Tetramands… She was a witch, and if she had enough political influence, maybe she could make some changes on the wizard community's policies.

"I'll let you think about this for a while…" Charmcaster stood up, left the bath - and made sure to show off her body in a seductive manner as she dried herself with the towel just to make Gwen extra embarrassed before leaving.

* * *

Later, Gwen stared at Ben's chamber door and took a deep breath. She knew that what she was about to do was going to be very awkward. She finally got courage and knocked.

A few seconds later, Ben answered, "Hi, cuz. Come in." Gwen sat on the bed and Ben sat next to her.

Gwen took another deep breath and then began, "I changed my mind. I'd still prefer if you drop the whole President thing after we deal with Kevin, but... if you want to embrace this role, I'll stay with you."

"I promise you that when the time comes, I'll think carefully about whether to embrace this role or not," Ben said, and then gave her a tight hug, "But I'm really happy that you'll stick by me no matter what."

"You're welcome." Gwen smiled and hugged him back. "I do have one condition though. It's weird but promise me you will listen to everything I have to say before freaking out."

"Sure," Ben let go of the hug, now very curious about what Gwen's condition was.

"The wizard community wants you to marry a witch." Gwen bit her lips. "I want it to be me. But-" she began but was interrupted.

"You want to marry me?" Ben said as his eyes widened.

"Yes, but it's not like-" she was interrupted again as Ben kissed her. And it wasn't just a chaste kiss, he ravished her mouth as if there were years of pent-up desires behind that kiss. He swirled his tongue inside her mouth fiercely as his lips massaged hers. She didn't know how to react as he kept Frenching her. However, when he put a hand over her breast and squeezed it, she pulled away, "B-Ben, w-what a-are y-you d-doing?"

Ben scratched his head, "You said you wanted to marry me." Then he lowered his voice. "I'm in love with you. I have been for a long time. I thought you felt the same way."

Now, it was Gwen's turn to widen her eyes. She knew the "What if Ben and I weren't related?" question popped in her mind more times than she'd like to admit, but she never actually thought about it for real. And she never imagined he was in love with her.

"I-I w-was going to p-propose f-for us t-to have a s-sham m-marriage..." Gwen tried to sit still on the bed, but her body kept moving involuntarily, "S-Something to g-give me the status of a President's L-Lady, but without us actually d-doing… y-you know…"

"You wanted to marry me just for the status?" Ben said with an expression of sadness that made Gwen's heart break, especially because she was the cause of it.

She grabbed his hands, "No, no, no, it's not that. Let me explain, ok? Today I asked my Grandma to help with healing potions for the Tetramands, but things didn't work out. Later, Charmcaster made me see that a high political status can be used for good. I want to change the wizard community, to convince them to share what they have with the rest of the galaxy. It won't happen if you marry the person that the wizards pick for you, because she would work to keep the status-quo of the wizards as a closed community. It has to be me."

"You want to be a President's Lady so you can use your status to influence the wizards into helping more people," Ben said and Gwen nodded, "That's very noble of you. I hope that my confession hasn't messed everything up and you still want to do it. Please don't hate me," he said apologetically.

Gwen put a finger over his lips, "You have nothing to apologize for and I'd never hate you. Your confession was just a surprise to me, that's all." She giggled. Then she kissed his cheek and let her lips linger on his skin for a long time, "Let me think about... us... for a while, ok?"

Gwen left Ben's chambers with her heart beating like a hammer.

* * *

Ben was sleeping after an exhaustive but rewarding second day of "meet and greet" with the common people, when he was suddenly awakened by Kabeb.

"What's happening?" Ben noticed that Kabeb looked distraught. The Tetramand soldier didn't say anything. He just gestured for Ben to follow him and soon they were at the 'war room' of the pyramid. Princess Looma, her father Gar Red Wind, Grandpa Max, Gwen and Charmcaster were all there too.

"My beloved," Princess Looma began in a frustrated tone, "I did assume that some Tetramands could try to attack you, especially since Kevin put a bounty on you, and that's why you were always heavily guarded during all the time you spent with the common people; but I never stopped to consider this particular possibility." Then she turned to Kabeb. "I'm very sorry."

"What happened?" Ben asked more than a little worried.

"My brother was kidnapped by Gorvan's men," Kabeb said, "The kidnappers know I'm one of the royal guards with access to you, and I was told that if I want my brother to live, I'm supposed to take you to Gorvan's pyramid tonight. They also expect me to stay there because if I do turn you over to them, I'd be a traitor and going back here would mean execution. Gorvan and his men – a few hundreds of soldiers – will lock themselves inside that pyramid until Kevin's forces arrives, and as Warlord Gar Red Wind said before, our pyramids are nearly impenetrable fortresses."

"Who's Gorvan? Can we negotiate with him?" Ben asked.

Gar Red Wind spoke next, with disgust in his voice, "Gorvan was a criminal in line for execution before Kevin defeated my daughter in combat. Then Kevin turned him into a Warlord and gave him an army composed of the rotten apples of Khoros. They won't negotiate with us. We will rescue Kabeb's brother, and if he can't, we will avenge him with the blood of Gorvan and all his men."

Ben glanced at Kabeb and realized by the expression on his face – that was a mix between desolation and anger – that the avenge option was more likely than the rescue option. He didn't like that.

"Maybe we could play their game. You turn me over to them, and once we're inside and they let their guard down we figure out a way to escape before Kevin's forces arrives," Ben suggested.

"Heck, I'd be up for it," Kabeb said.

"You're not the one with luck powers, Ben," Gwen said, "And, remember, there is no guarantee Gorvan won't just kill Kabeb and his brother once he has his hands on you. They also could just cut your arm off and kill you, since it's the Omnitrix Kevin wants. Even if they do let everyone live, you guys might get killed anyway when trying to escape, since you'd outnumbered against hundreds of soldiers inside that pyramid!" Both Charmcaster and Looma agreed with Gwen.

Ben knew that whatever plan they could think of to rescue Kabeb's brother would likely fail and they didn't have much time before the night - and the kidnappers' deadline - was over. Turn himself over to Gorvan and try to figure something out later was stupid and borderline suicidal, both for him and for Kabeb, but on the other hand it seemed to be the only chance - a very tiny, little, minuscule chance.

* * *

**Ben should... (Poll on my profile):**

**1) Don't turn himself over to Gorvan**  
**2) Turn himself over to Gorvan **

**PS: Ben doesn't have Ghostfreak yet in this fic, so using Ghostfreak to sneak into Gorvan's pyramid and save the hostage is not an option. You're welcome to suggest other ideas in reviews, and the next chapter might answer if they would work or not.**

**Thanks to Aurora Nightstar for beta reading this. Also, thanks to everyone who favorited, followed and – or reviewed this story.**


	8. Chapter 8

_Results from the last poll:_

_Ben should..._

**_1) Turn himself over to Gorvan: 18 votes_**

_2) Don't turn himself over to Gorvan: 12 votes_

* * *

**CHAPTER 8**

* * *

"Charmcaster can control inanimate objects. Maybe she could use her powers to open the pyramid's entrance," Grandpa Max suggested, "Then Princess Looma's armies' storm in and we finish off Gorvan and his men."

"I could do that." Charmcaster nodded.

"It's a great plan, but… They would probably kill my brother the minute the attack starts," Kabeb sighed.

"Ok, I know what to do," Ben announced after thinking for a few seconds, "I can turn into Grey Matter. I'll be small enough to search Gorvan's pyramid without being seen. After I find Kabeb's brother, I signal for you guys to get in like Grandpa proposed. In the midst of the turmoil, I'll escape with him."

"Bad idea," Gwen said, "Gorvan's pyramid is huge. You'd need many hours to walk through all of it, but you'd have about 15 minutes to explore it as Grey Matter before you turn back to normal and they catch you – and with the beeping sounds and the bright light that the Omnitrix makes when you de-transform, they would catch you."

"Maybe a fusion can help… I used a Tetramand-Kineceleran fusion before. I could try another one," Ben thought out loud.

"That was a fluke," Grandpa Max remembered. "You don't know how to deliberately trigger fusions yet."

"Alright, alright. So, the best choice is to let Kabeb pretend he kidnapped me and take me to them. If they believe he's on their side, it will be easier for him to leave with his brother. After they are out, you can storm in and rescue me. And if they're not out in one hour, you go in anyway."

"But, my beloved, what if Gorvan just cuts the Omnitrix off your arm and kills you?" Princess Looma asked.

"I took Kevin's wives from him: Charmcaster, Gwen and others. I bet Kevin will want Gorvan to interrogate me about the girls' whereabouts. It will buy us time… And I have to count on a bit of luck." Ben scratched his head.

"Last time we thought that, you and Red ended up in the belly of a Sand Ripper, remember?" Charmcaster said, and the room fell into deep silence. Almost everyone thought Ben was making a mistake. Charmcaster stepped forward and slapped Ben right in the face, "They're going to kill you," she said bitterly, "And at least Princess Looma has her people, Gwen has the rest of your family and the wizard community, but I got nothing. You're everything I have," she said as a tear fell down her face. "When you're dead, I'll be alone."

"Don't worry. I will come back," Ben said softly as he moved his hand to wipe the tear off her face.

"Shut up!" Charmcaster slapped his hand away from her. "There's something I've never told you. I loved my father, but I also really, really hate him. You know how he died? The wizards asked him to pick up some herbs from some planet and it was supposed to be a mission so easy that he even took me with him. But then Vilgax's army of Null-Void beasts invaded that planet. I can't even blame the wizards for what happened," she said as another tear fell down. "They told him to leave immediately and he didn't listen. He sent me away and stayed to try to help evacuate more people off the planet, because that was the heroic thing to do. The last thing he told me was exactly what you said, 'Don't worry, I will come back'. But he never did. So, fuck him, fuck you and fuck everyone who thinks being a hero is a good idea," she said before storming off.

* * *

An hour later, in the ship with Kabeb flying towards Gorvan's pyramids, Ben was still haunted not only by Charmcaster's words, but also by how all the others – Gwen, Looma and Grandpa Max – were also against his plan.

"You don't have to do this, you know," Kabeb said.

"I want to." Ben shook his heads to drive the doubts away. "I'm the Wielder of the Omnitrix. This kind of thing is what I'm supposed to do."

"Thanks, I really appreciate it." Kabeb smiled at him as he drove the ship towards its destination.

"Kabeb, stop," Ben said as they approached Gorvan's pyramid and the ship remained floating in midair. "Remember, if they even suspect that I agreed to this, they will kill you and your brother. Make them believe you hate me. This is your only chance. Now… Hit me."

"What? They never said I had to hit-"

"Yes, they didn't. But we need to make it look like you despise me. Do it," Ben demanded.

"I see your point… Sorry," Kabeb said as he punched Ben in the face. Then he handcuffed Ben.

A few moments later, they were in front of the pyramid, and a side entrance opened up, allowing Kabeb's small ship to enter. Kabeb threw Ben out without any sign of gentleness.

"Gorvan, there it is, the piece of shit that you wanted. Now, where is my brother?"

Gorvan, an overweight Tetramand who wasn't very tall – Ben could bet that he would never have ascended to the position of Warlord without being Kevin's middleman in Khoros – approached Ben, surrounded by many soldiers. Kabeb's brother was nowhere in sight, though.

Gorvan eyed Ben as he compared him to a hologram from a small device in his hand, probably something to make sure he had the right guy. Gorvan smiled from ear to ear and said, "Good, this is really him. But look at what you did to his face… And here I thought you two were friends."

"We were," Kabeb said, "We had a deal. I'd help him find the Taydenite he needed to challenge the Princess and he would fight her as my proxy. I'd marry Looma and give full support to his rule as President of the Galactic Alliance. Then he changed his mind and wanted to marry the princess himself. I couldn't care less about him now."

"I can't really blame the guy. Looma is smoking hot." Gorvan laughed. His men lifted Ben up and traded the handcuffs Kabeb had put on him for a metal plate coated in Taydenite to cover his left wrist with the Omnitrix.

"Crap," Ben thought, "This will make things a lot harder."

Ben was dragged to a hidden cell away from there, and then Gorvan gestured for his men to bring in Kabeb's brother. He looked a lot like Kabeb, but skinnier. The two siblings hugged, happy to be reunited.

"What are you going to do now, my friend?" Gorvan asked with a malicious smirk.

"I just want to get out of here with my brother. Please," Kabeb pleaded.

"Fair enough. I'll give you the best ship that my men got after the last Incursean invasion, full of supplies like food and water that will last for a month, to make sure that you can safely get off the planet and stay far away from Princess Looma when she finds out that you kidnapped her new husband," Of course, what Gorvan really wanted was for Looma to assume that Kabeb was taking Ben and the Omnitrix off the planet and chase after him. That would buy Gorvan some time while he waited for the arrival of Kevin's forces.

Meanwhile, Ben was locked up in a cell, cursing that new reinforced metal plate on his left arm. He would have been able to activate the Omnitrix with the handcuff Kabeb had put on him, but with that thing, it seemed impossible.

After a few minutes, Gorvan appeared and the guards opened the cell for him.

"Benjamin Tennyson, am I right? President Kevin wants to know where his wives are. You can just tell me now, or you can tell me after I torture you. Your choice," Gorvan said, clearly enjoying himself.

Before Ben could reply with a snarky remark, a soldier stormed in, "Sir, Looma's soldiers are attacking us!"

Ben smiled. That meant Kabeb and his brother had arrived safely back.

"What? How? Our entrance was sealed! Nobody goes in, nobody gets out!" Gorvan yelled.

"We don't know how they did it, sir. But they're here," The soldier said.

"Magic…" Gorvan hissed furiously and then turned his attention to Ben, "You know, I didn't get where I am by being the strongest or the most skilled warrior. I got where I am by-"

"By sucking Kevin's balls." Ben completed the phrase, which earned him a punch in the face, much harder than the one he got from Kabeb before.

"By being smart! This cell is supposed to be hidden, but I know they will find it soon. However, they will have to get past a few hundred soldiers first, so I have a little bit of time to escape. There's a corridor here that will take me to a spaceship, and I will take the Omnitrix to President Kevin. And I mean the Omnitrix, not you. Finding the fugitive wives was something the President wanted, but not his priority." Gorvan had a sadistic smile as he raised a sword.

"WAIT!" Ben yelled, "I can tell you how to wield the Omnitrix yourself! You won't have to play second fiddle to Kevin or anyone else, ever! There is an AI that prevents anyone 'unworthy' from wielding it, but I was able to bypass it and I can show you how to do the same." Of course, Ben had no real intention of doing that; he was just trying to buy time and hoped that his friends would burst in at any second to his rescue. "Gorvan, you will be the most powerful-"

Gorvan interrupted Ben by chomping his left arm off with a quick movement of his sword.

"I'm fine with things as they are," he snorted, "I personally think this watch is more trouble than it's worth."

Gorvan expected for Ben to scream in pain – after all, that was the usual reaction from someone who just got a limb cut off without anesthesia – but he just fell on the ground.

Motionless.

Lifeless.

"Pathetic human, so weak." Gorvan shrugged, grabbed the severed left arm with the Omnitrix hidden under the metal plate and then turned to the guards. "To my ship! Let's go!"

"But, sir, what about the others?" One of the guards asked.

"You're welcome to go up there and help them against Looma's troops, if that's what you want," Gorvan said in a grunt.

The guards followed him as they walked through the dimly lit corridor towards the spaceship. However, all of a sudden, a bright green light shone from the severed arm that Gorvan was carrying, and then there was no arm there anymore, just the empty metal plate. Then Grey Matter – as Ben called this alien – crawled out from inside the metal plate.

"No way! This is impossible!" Gorvan tried to grab the alien, but he jumped away.

"Guards!" Gorvan yelled. The guards attacked Grey Matter, but to their surprise he quickly turned into a Lepidopterran – Stinkfly – and shot slime right at their eyes.

"My eyes!" one said as he dropped his sword and tried to clean the goop substance off his face.

"I can't see!" the other had the same reaction

Stinkfly then switched to Four Arms, picked up the dropped swords and slit both guards' throats with them.

Gorvan was running away. Four Arms turned into a Kineceleran to quickly reach him before he could get to his ship. Then he turned into a Florauna – Wildvine – and wrapped Gorvan's neck in vines.

"Please…" he said, gasping for air and ineffectively trying to break off the thick vines, "don't… kill… me..."

Then a voice shouted, "Ben, what are you doing?" It was from a redheaded human teenage girl –Ben's cousin Gwendolyn Tennyson – accompanied by a silver-haired human girl – Charmcaster, whose real name was Hope –, an older and strong but overweight human man – Ben's grandfather Max – and a troop of Tetramand soldiers led by their Overlordess – Looma Red Wind.

Wildvine reluctantly released Gorvan, who gasped for air, glad to be alive, and was soon immobilized by the newly arrived Tetramand soldiers.

"Well done, Ben. You're finally learning," Charmcaster smirked as she glanced at the bodies of the throat-sliced guards. She and Gwendolyn really were total opposites when it comes to their methods. That was a bit odd to the Alien. And they assumed that he was Ben. What would the Alien do?

Before he could think of his next step, though, the group found Ben's body - missing the left arm. Gwendolyn crouched near him and checked for a pulse. "He's gone..." she said as the tears started falling down her face.

"You cut off his arm, stole the Omnitrix and killed him!" Max shouted.

The Tetramand troops quickly turned their swords and spears at the Alien.

"Wait, I didn't do anything," he said, "Can you let me explain before attacking me?"

"Talk. Fast," Looma said, gritting her teeth.

"I'm the co-creator of the Omnitrix, Albedo." Then Wildvine turned into Grey Matter, "After the Omnitrix was forcibly separated from its wielder when the boy had his arm cut off by them," He pointed at Gorvan and the two dead guards, "I woke up. My consciousness had been dormant inside the Omnitrix all along."

"B-Ben mentioned an artificial intelligence, Azmuth's," the older man said, clearly trying to hold off his tears, "So, are you an AI too?"

"You could say that." Albedo nodded affirmatively. "Albedo's consciousness – my consciousness – was programmed into the Omnitrix, just like Azmuth's."

"Why were you two inactive all this time rather than helping him then?! Azmuth's AI was there to prove if Ben was worthy or not, but then he vanished!" The redhead yelled, "You can turn from one alien to another with a thought, without waiting any time. Ben would be alive now if you had taught him those skills!"

"Azmuth made a mistake," Albedo said defensively, "Yes, our consciousness – Azmuth's and mine – were supposed to be activated and teach the Wielder everything he needed to know, but it obviously didn't happen. I'm very sorry, but I don't know what caused this error. This part of the project was designed by Azmuth."

"You!" Charmcaster stepped closer to Gorvan and her pink eyes had a deadness, a stillness, that could terrify anyone, "I swear, I will make you feel pain like no one else in the galaxy ever felt before. You will beg for death, but I won't give it to you."

"You can have him," Looma said, "Being eaten by the beasts in the arena would be too merciful. He deserves worse."

"P-Please," Gorvan begged, "I-I didn't kill him! I c-cut h-his a-arm off, true, but t-that doesn't kill anyone! A-At l-least not t-that f-fast. H-He just f-fell dead r-right a-after the cut. H-He d-didn't even s-scream, I s-swear. I-It's n-not how it h-happens! It m-must be s-something e-else! It must be something else!"

* * *

Ben Tennyson was focused on the box of candies on the teacher's table. She had promised that on the last class before vacation she would issue a challenge and give that sweet prize to whoever could solve it.

"In the 18-th century, a mathematician named Goldbach proposed the conjecture that every even integer greater than 2 can be expressed as the sum of two prime numbers, like, for example 3 + 7 = 10; 3 + 97 = 100; 3 + 997 = 1,000… However, this remained unproven until we made contact with alien cultures and found out that hundreds of years before Goldbach, a Galvan named Azmuth had come to the same conclusion and proved it." The students saw a three-dimensional hologram of an old galvan wearing a green tunic who had tendrils on his chin that made it look like he had a beard. "My challenge is very simple: you have to decompose the number 10,000 into the sum of two primes."

Ben immediately began writing numbers with his finger on the screen, trying to find the right answer. After a few minutes, he raised his hand. Not surprising, though, was that the student sitting right behind him raised his hand a split second before Ben.

"Cash?" the teacher gestured for Cash Murray to give his answer.

"3 plus 9997!" Cash said, and Ben had to hold a laughter.

"Nice try, but 9997 is not a prime number," the teacher shook her head as Cash stared at her dumbfounded, "Ben, your turn."

"59 plus 9941," Ben said.

"Correct, Ben. Congratulations!" The teacher handed him the candy box.

"That's not what he wrote on his screen!" Cash yelled, "It was the same answer I said!"

"Yes," Ben replied with a mischievous smirk, "I wrote down the wrong answer because I knew you would be looking, you idiot."

The whole class burst into laughter as the bell rang, indicating the end of classes and the beginning of vacations. The 17-year-old ran outside, and, to his joy, saw Grandpa Max's RV - the Rust Bucket - at the school parking lot.

Ben quickly got inside the vehicle and ran to give his grandfather a hug, "Hi, Grandpa!"

"Hi, kiddo." Max ran his fingers through his grandson's hair.

Then Ben glanced at another passenger, his cousin Gwen. "Hi Dweeb." He smiled.

"Hi, Doofus." The redhead also smiled.

The two cousins stared at each other awkwardly for a few seconds. Ben stepped forward to give Gwen a hug but stopped halfway and bit his lips. Then Gwen walked over to him and straight up kissed him on the mouth. Once she did, he immediately put his arms around her and returned the kiss.

"I'm still not used to doing this in front of other people." Ben scratched his head. He and Gwen had dated – in secret – for as long as he could remember. When they finally came out to their family, much to Ben's surprise they were all supportive of their choice.

"You're probably hungry, right, Ben?" Grandpa Max asked, "I cooked something to get you in the mood for our road trip." Grandpa offered Ben a plate with… something… with worms coming out of it.

"Maxie, my love, I respect your diet, but I told you not to push it on the kids!" Grandma Mary said as she approached Ben and Gwen with a plate of double chocolate cookies, "Take these, Ben."

"Thank you, Grandma Mary! You are my hero." Ben hugged the older lady before taking a cookie.

"Now let's get our final member of the crew," Grandpa Max said behind the steering wheel.

A few minutes later, the Rust Bucket stopped in front of a building and not much after a young silver-haired woman appeared carrying nothing but a small weird bag.

"Yes, Dad, I'm sure Mr. Tennyson checked the RV's solar panels. Yes, I got everything I need and lots of things I'm sure I won't even need too. That's what my infinity bag is for. I'm 19. I'm not a child anymore," she said in a holo-call with her father, "Goodbye, Dad, I love you too." She ended the call and turned to the Tennysons, "Hi, folks."

Then Hope kissed Ben on the mouth, and they started a quick make out session. Ben put everything in that kiss to show Hope how happy he was to have her joining the Tennyson family road trip that year.

After they broke the kiss, Hope turned to Gwen and surprised her with a quick peck on the lips as well. "Don't think I forgot about you, Red."

Ben once again glanced at his grandparents, grateful for their open-mindedness and support.

Funny how that started. Hope befriended Gwen over their shared magic skills but got along great with Ben too. Hope became their best friend and the first person whom they told about their secret relationship. All three started hanging out together all the time, until all of a sudden Hope started avoiding them. When they confronted her about it, she confessed that she had fallen in love with both of them and wanted space to get over it. After months without the company of their silver-haired best friend and missing her very much, Gwen proposed a solution: that all three of them could be in a relationship together. Hope accepted it right away, and Ben... well, no man would ever complain about that arrangement. It was a bit awkward to Gwen herself, though, since she wasn't bisexual, but they were figuring things out.

Ben's holo-phone rang, snapping him out of his thoughts. He looked at the caller's ID: Azmuth. He thought it was odd – the only Azmuth he knew was the genius Galvan he learned about in school – but he picked up the call.

A distorted three-dimensional image of the elderly Galvan appeared, and Ben could barely hear his voice with all the static, "Benja- …. -ped ….. -ide Omnitrix…. -bedo….. remem-… real….. Not vacati- ….. home."

"Ben, this is just a prank call," Grandpa Max said, "you should turn it off."

"Yeah," Ben did as his grandfather suggested, "I bet it's Cash. He's ticked that I embarrassed him in front of the whole class today when he tried to cheat."

"Great. Let's get this show on the road then!" Grandpa Max said as he started the RV.

A summer road trip with his beautiful girlfriends and his lovely grandparents. Ben couldn't think of anything better than that.

* * *

Hours later, back at the Red Wind's pyramid, Albedo – as Four Arms – was in a reunion with the Overlordess Looma and the Warlord Gar Red Wind, alongside their most trusted men and women, including Kabeb. Looma and Kabeb were the most shaken by Ben's death, and they could barely look at Four Arms since he reminded them of Ben. Looma's father Gar was taking the lead of the conversation.

"What are you going to do now?" Gar asked.

"My duty as the Wielder of the Omnitrix. Rule the Galactic Alliance with wisdom and justice, and that starts with taking Kevin down and then going after Vilgax," Four Arms said, "I assume Princess Looma is no longer bound to Kevin, right?"

"No. The moment Ben Tennyson defeated Princess Looma in combat, they became legally married even though they didn't get a proper marriage ceremony. With his death, our sole ruler is the Overlordess, Looma." Gar Red Wind let out a sad sigh as he glanced at his daughter and saw a tear falling from her eye. "And she already decided that our people will help you against Kevin."

"You won't be disappointed. Kevin doesn't know that Benjamin Tennyson is dead." Then to everybody's surprise Four Arms morphed into the human form of Ben. "He's expecting to come here and fight an inexperienced teenager, but he will fight the co-creator of the Omnitrix. He won't stand a chance. Then I plan to challenge for the Princess' hand myself, according to the Tetramand customs."

Everybody stared at him and he realized he made a mistake. Expressing his intentions to marry Looma merely hours after the death of Ben was quite insensitive. He had to be more careful about his social/political skills, especially if he wanted to be the President of the Galactic Alliance.

* * *

Gwen was in her chambers, crying her eyes out. Grandpa Max was trying to comfort her, but he too was devastated by his grandson's death. Max had talked to Gwen's grandma Verdona and it was arranged that they would take Ben's body to Earth, where he would be buried by his family. He still hadn't told Carl and Sandra about it, though. He had no idea how he would tell his own son Carl that his child Ben was dead.

"I never told him I loved him back," Gwen said as she sobbed.

"Pumpkin, of course you did, many times, and he knew it." Grandpa put a hand on her shoulder.

"You don't get it, Grandpa! He told me he was in l-" Then she stopped, "Can you hear that?"

"What?" Grandpa asked.

"Ben's voice!" Gwen ran off.

"Pumpkin, wait!" Grandpa Max tried to run after her.

The voice was coming from Ben's chambers. Gwen burst the door open and saw Ben talking to someone on the magic mirror.

"You're alive!" Gwen tackled him in a hug, "What happened?"

"Sorry, Gwendolyn." He didn't return her affectionate gesture. "I'm not Ben. I'm Albedo."

Gwen released him from the hug immediately. "But you..."

"Ben's DNA is in the Omnitrix now. It's the default human form," Albedo explained.

"But why the heck are you using this form then? You shouldn't look like him! It's not right!" She yelled in anger.

"I'm sorry about that. But she is more comfortable talking to another human like her," Albedo was still holding the magic mirror and Gwen saw her twin cousin Sunny's face reflected on it.

"Sunny?!" Gwen asked, surprised, "What are you doing?"

"Hi, Gwendy. I'm sorry about Ben. I really am," Sunny said, "But Kevin still needs to be defeated, and the Wizard Community still wants an alliance with the Wielder of the Omnitrix."

"You're marrying Albedo," Gwen realized, "You said you wanted to marry Ben, but his body isn't even cold yet and you're already throwing yourself at the next Wielder. Bitch!"

Sunny smirked. "Don't worry, cuz. I'll forgive your insulting words because I know you're grieving."

"I'm sorry that you didn't get to marry Benjamin like you two planned, Gwendolyn," Albedo said in a tone that sounded a lot more like reading from a script rather than heartfelt condolences.

"Wait, what? You were going to marry Ben?" Sunny asked, "I thought you were supposed to convince him to marry me! Were you going to stab me in the back like that?!"

Gwen just stormed out of the room.

She didn't even hear what Grandpa Max was saying to her. All she could think about was Ben and the future they didn't have together. They were supposed to marry and-

"Grandpa, did Ben tell you that we had talked about getting married?" Gwen asked abruptly as a realization dawned on her.

Grandpa just scratched his head, "No, h-he didn't. I-I d-don't know what to say."

Gwen ran to Charmcaster's chambers and entered without knocking.

"Hi, Red." Charmcaster's pink eyes were red from crying. "I didn't know if I was supposed to say goodbye to you or just leave. I heard that Albedo is making a deal with the wizards, and since I'm still a wanted criminal, I want to be far away from him before he decides to turn me over to them."

"Did you know that Ben and I had talked about getting married? Did you tell anyone about it?" Gwen asked abruptly.

Charmcaster was surprised, "What? Wow, I would be happy for you, but..." She lowered her head and hugged her weird bag against the chest, "…that's just sad now."

"He's alive," Gwen stated. "Ben is alive."

"What? His body is-"

"Forget the body. The Omnitrix can create bodies from a mere DNA sample, and the Omnitrix has Ben's DNA. It's Ben's consciousness that we need to get back. And it's there too." Gwen smiled for the first time that day.

"There? Where?" Charmcaster asked. She glanced at Grandpa Max behind Gwen, and he was equally confused.

"Inside the Omnitrix," Gwen said, "Everything adds up. Gorvan said Ben just blacked out after the Omnitrix was cut off him and didn't even scream. I think he was telling the truth. Ben's mind simply wasn't in his body anymore after he lost the Omnitrix. His mind was pulled into the Omnitrix. It makes perfect sense as a self-preservation mechanism."

"Red…" Charmcaster grabbed Gwen's hand gently, "I want to believe he's alive too, but that's just wishful thin-"

"Albedo knew something that only Ben and I knew – that we talked about getting married. The only way to explain it is if Albedo can read Ben's mind, and that means Ben's mind is still there. He must have trapped Ben in there so he could take over," Gwen said confidently.

Charmcaster blinked for a few seconds while looking at the wall as she processed all that new information. Then she turned her attention to Gwen, "And how can we get rid of Albedo and get Ben back?"

"I don't know, but I have a friend who might help. She's a teenage Galvan named Fergi. We never met in person, but we've been talking through the galactic-net for a couple of years. She is the smartest person I know," Gwen said.

"You are friends with a Galvan and you never thought about calling her before?!" Charmcaster stared at Gwen in disbelief, "She could probably have figured out a lot of things about the Omnitrix!"

"I didn't want to risk her life! Kevin might be tracking my friends to find me. Chatting with her on the galactic-net wasn't safe for either of us. But now there's no other option. I will have to drag her into this mess," Gwen sighed, "But, anyway, we should talk to Princess Looma. We can't make any move against Albedo here without her help."

"Wait, I'm not so sure that's a good idea," Charmcaster warned, "Will Looma help us? I mean, wasn't her thing with Ben a political arrangement? She might be even thinking about marrying Albedo right now."

Looma didn't seem like Sunny to Gwen, but still, Charmcaster had a point, "Let's talk to Kabeb then. He knows Princess Looma better than we do."

Gwen, Grandpa Max and Charmcaster went to talk to Kabeb in private. Kabeb himself was very saddened, and couldn't stop apologizing, as he felt he was responsible for Ben's death. Gwen explained to him that she believed that Albedo had trapped Ben's mind inside the Omnitrix and asked if he thought Looma would help them to get Ben back.

"I have absolutely no doubt that the Princess will help you… if she believes you," Kabeb said, "I mean, I know you have evidences, but it's still a little hard to believe that Ben is alive inside the Omnitrix."

"What if we can't convince her?" Charmcaster asked.

"I'm afraid she would send you away from Khoros immediately to make sure you don't take any actions against Albedo. He's still our best shot at defeating Kevin, and a possible political ally for the future," Kabeb explained.

"I trust your call, Pumpkin," Grandpa Max said as he put a hand on her shoulder, "You were the one who figured out that Ben's alive. You should be the one to decide whether we should talk to the Princess or not."

"I agree," Charmcaster said.

"Whatever you decide, I'm with you guys," Kabeb said.

Gwen took a deep breath. Getting to Albedo would be hard and dangerous if they were to do it behind Looma's back, since he would be under the protection of the Tetramands. If they talk to her and have her support, things would definitely be a lot easier. However, if they talk to her and she doesn't believe them, getting Ben back would be even harder and much more dangerous since Looma would be aware of their plans and would actively try to stop them.

* * *

**Gwen should...**

**1) Talk to Looma.**

**2) Don't talk to Looma.**

**(10 days to vote, poll is in my profile, mobile users please switch to desktop mode to vote)**

*** Just out of curiosity: in the last poll, if the majority of readers had pick the option for Ben not to turn himself over to Gorvan, things would have been very different and Ben wouldn't have died. Some specific choices can get our protagonists into deep water. But I really like how things turned out, with the girls now working to get Ben back and Albedo as the villain.**

*** Thanks to everybody who is reading this. Please, favorite/follow if you like the story and leave a review to comment about what you liked and didn't like. Also, thanks to Aurora Nightstar for beta reading.**


	9. Chapter 9

Results from the last poll...

Gwen should

_Talk to Looma (32 votes) - winner_

Don't talk to Looma (7 votes)

* * *

Author's notes: So far, we have **Gwen, Charmcaster** and **Princess Looma** as the main female characters. In this chapter, a new one will be added,** Fergi**. She's not an OC, but she is a very minor character from Omniverse. You can google "Fergi Ben 10" and look her up.

* * *

**CHAPTER 9**

* * *

"Do you believe me, Princess?" Gwen asked after giving Looma a detailed explanation of her theory that Albedo had trapped Ben's mind inside the Omnitrix.

Looma took a deep breath, "I believe that Albedo has Ben's memories, but we don't know how that watch really works. Maybe the Omnitrix simply recorded everything that happened to the previous Wielder and that's why Albedo knows about your private conversations with Ben. There is no concrete proof that Albedo imprisoned Ben's mind somehow," she sighed, "Ben is my beloved too, but, for the sake of my people, I can't make an enemy of Albedo, the current Wielder of the Omnitrix, without proof of his crime."

Grandpa Max, Gwen and Charmcaster went silent. Looma had a point. Gwen's theory wasn't the only way to explain Albedo's knowledge of Ben's memories. The redhead paused to think. She needed a plan.

* * *

Looma knocked on Ben – now Albedo's – chamber door.

"Princess," Four Arms Albedo bowed as a sign of respect – even though it was particularly humiliating to him to bow down to an inferior person. He knew he had to play by the rules for now to build the necessary alliance. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"We need to talk," Looma said. "Please, come with me."

Four Arms Albedo followed Looma to the holding cells, and saw three new prisoners there: Charmcaster, Gwendolyn and Maxwell Tennyson.

"You," Charmcaster spat in Looma's direction, "All that 'Tetramand honor' talk is pure bullshit. I'm a criminal and I have more honor than you. You're a coward!"

"We know what you did to Ben, Albedo!" Gwendolyn yelled, "Guess what, you made a mistake when you mentioned that Ben and I had talked about getting married. Nobody but the two of us knew about that. I know his mind is in the Omnitrix, imprisoned by you!"

"And we will get him back," Maxwell said. "We have Galvan friends, and they will know what to do!"

"I'm afraid grief clouded your judgment, humans." Four Arms Albedo shook his head, "You speak nonsense."

Looma then gestured for Albedo to follow her out of the prison area. She asked the guards to give them privacy, so they were completely alone.

"Just between us, I have to be blunt," Looma said, "I liked Ben Tennyson, I really did, but he was just a boy. He wasn't strong enough to wield the Omnitrix. He wouldn't have stood a chance against Kevin or Vilgax. I would understand your reasons if you had trapped Ben Tennyson's mind and taken over as the Wielder of the Omnitrix."

"Thank you, Princess." Four Arms Albedo smiled, proud of himself. "But Benjamin Tennyson is dead, and that's it."

"Well, that's a big relief," Looma said. "When the humans told me their theory about Ben still being alive inside the Omnitrix somehow, I was afraid that they were right and I had them arrested. I knew they wouldn't stop until they could find a way to bring him back at your expense, so I was willing to execute them to prevent it. But thankfully, I won't have to resort to that. I will just order them to leave this planet and never come back. Let them go to their Galvan friends and find out that their quest is worthless. That will make them understand."

Four Arms Albedo tensed and remained silent for almost a minute until he finally said something, "… I'm sorry I didn't tell you this before. I didn't want you to carry this burden. As you said, Benjamin Tennyson wouldn't be able to protect the galaxy from the likes of Kevin Levin and Vilgax. For the greater good, I trapped Ben's mind inside the Omnitrix and took over, yes. If the humans leave this planet and happen to find a brilliant Galvan scientist to share their theories with, they might find a way to recover Benjamin and bench me again. I'm sorry to ask you this, Princess, but, please, we need to take care of them, for the greater good."

* * *

"Your plan worked, Gwen. Albedo confessed everything," Princess Looma said as she ordered the guards to release Gwen, Max and Charmcaster from the holding cells, "And your hunch is right too, he is afraid that a Galvan might be intelligent enough to find a way to bring Ben back." Then she sighed. "The problem will be how to contain him now. He has the Omnitrix with no time-outs and can change from one alien to another instantly."

"It's my turn to come up with a plan now!" Charmcaster smirked.

* * *

"So, is this where you dump your garbage?" Albedo asked, still as Four Arms, so he could better blend in amongst them.

"Yes," A Tetramand replied. "The Incurseans are always sending drones and ships to get past our defenses. We scrap them for metal and parts."

Four Arms Albedo looked at the pile of broken drones and shook his head in disappointment. That primitive and uncultured people's level of comprehension of science was far below that of a Galvan child, otherwise just by studying the Incurseans' leftovers, the Tetramands would have been able to get a significant improvement on their own technology.

"Can I take a look at it?" Four Arms Albedo asked.

"Sure." The Tetramand soldier stepped aside as Albedo made his way through the garbage.

In a few hours, Four Arms Albedo had already built a device that allowed him to communicate with someone off the planet. He knew exactly who he needed to talk to: himself.

"Albedo, can you hear me?" Four Arms Albedo asked, hoping that there would be another person listening on the other side.

"Who are you? *cough, cough*," A familiar voice – his own natural voice – replied. He missed listening to the sound of his natural voice, but it didn't sound quite like he remembered. It sounded older. Of course, centuries had passed, and his original self had aged.

"I'm you. Or another version of you. You uploaded your own mind inside the Omnitrix, remember? I'm active now. I managed to lock up the wielder's mind and took over," Four Arms Albedo replied.

"That's *cough* fascinating…" Old Albedo said, "Last night I dreamt that I had the Omnitrix *cough, cough* And I was in Khoros, planning to marry the Tetramand Overlordess and also a dark-haired human witch."

"You actually get glimpses of the things that happens to me in your dreams? That's really fascinating. If I were to believe in mysticism, I'd say we share a soul," Four Arms replied, "I have the Omnitrix. I'm in Khoros and I'm planning on marrying Princess Looma, and I did talk to a witch named Sunny over a magic mirror about a marriage proposal as well. Not that I want it – the very thought of mating with a Tetramand or a human disgust me – but we need the alliances with the Tetramands and the wizards, and probably we will need a lot more."

"And I thought these were just odd dreams *cough* from a dying man *cough, cough*," Old Albedo said.

"Dying?" Four Arms Albedo thought out loud. All that coughing… His other self didn't have much time left.

"I'll live forever, though, through you." Old Albedo giggled, but his laughter was cut off by more coughing.

Four Arms Albedo detailed to Old Albedo everything that had happened to him. "But Benjamin's friends suspect what I did. Thankfully it seems Princess Looma is on my side. She arrested them. However, I still need to get rid of Benjamin Tennyson once and for all."

"Azmuth safe-guarded the Omnitrix against the deletion of the wielder's consciousness. *cough* However, I designed a special device to wipe out all the data from the Omnitrix. I just never got the chance *cough* to use it. If I could, it would get rid of Ben's mind and Azmuth's mind – ours too, but I could just *cough, cough* upload our mind back into it again after the clean-up."

"Excellent. I'll wait for you here," Four Arms said.

"Hey," the Tetramand soldier called Four Arms, "It's time for a meal. Come with me, please."

"I'll have to go now. But I'll keep in contact, expect to hear from me again in a few hours," he whispered before turning off the communicator.

* * *

Four Arms Albedo hated to socialize, especially with the likes of Tetramands. Albedo's definition of small talk was to talk about science, something that the Tetramands would never understand – but he knew he had to gain their trust if he wanted to rule the Galactic Alliance, and dining with them was a first step. He went to the dining hall and sat at the table. The food was better than he expected, probably because his Tetramand physiology was taking it well.

"You are welcome to train with us tomorrow," a Tetramand soldier initiated a conversation.

"_That would be a waste of time,"_ Four Arms thought. Of course, he didn't say it. He faked a smile and said, "It would be my pleasu-"

Then Four Arms suddenly fell asleep and landed face-first into the food bowl. After checking that he was indeed unconscious, two Tetramand soldiers picked him up.

Charmcaster smirked as the soldiers moved Four Arms' unconscious body into the ship, "Told you guys that magically drugging him would work."

Max, Gwen and Charmcaster were already inside the ship. Looma and some of her guards tried to enter, but there was no room for all of them.

"Princess, we're using a small ship not to draw attention," Max explained, "There's not enough space for the royal guards to go along with us."

"They will stay here then, but I'm coming with you. Ben is my husband and I will not stay behind," Looma said and judging by the look of determination on her face, nobody would be able to change her mind. "Are we going to Galvan Prime?"

"I'd like to know that too," Charmcaster asked, "Red mentioned her Galvan friend, but I heard Galvan Prime is protected by an energy shield that stops Kevin, Vilgax and everybody else – including us – from getting inside. We can't get there."

"You're right," Gwen replied, "But they aren't isolated from the rest of the universe, they have explorers, Galvans who travel across the galaxy collecting information and stuff they need. My friend Fergi is a junior explorer. I'll try to reach out to her so she can meet us somewhere else as soon as possible."

* * *

"I got a reply from my friend, she's working on harnessing energy from the electric storms on Kinet – the Kinecelerans' homeworld. We can meet her there," Gwen announced a few hours later, "Hopefully Fergi is the only one who realized that the person who messaged her anonymously was me, and President Kevin won't know about our meeting. We already have enough problems as it is."

Grandpa Max put the coordinates into the ship's navigation system - it was an Incursean ship with an advanced autopilot system - and all they had to do was wait. They took turns making Four Arms Albedo drink more sleeping potion every hour to ensure he would stay asleep.

* * *

Sunny woke up as her holo-phone rang in the middle of the night. She realized that it was a call from an unknown person, but still decided to pick it up.

"Hello. If this is a prank call, I will find you, slice your throat and put your blood to good use," she said, very upset to have her sleep interrupted.

"Sunny *cough* It's me, Albedo…" The hologram of an old red-eyed Galvan showed up.

"Oh, my dear! I'm so sorry." She forced herself to smile. "What can I do for my future husband?" She also thought it was odd that he was talking to her as a Galvan this time rather than using a human form and he seemed sick too.

"You need to know *cough* I'm not the same Albedo who talked to you before," Albedo said.

"What? There's more than one of you?" She asked confused.

"I'm the original Albedo *cough* The other Albedo was created when I uploaded my own mind into the Omnitrix. *cough, cough*. We need to be honest with you now. Benjamin isn't really dead. We just trapped his consciousness inside the Omnitrix *cough* so we could finally emerge. However, *cough, cough* your cousin Gwendolyn already knows that, and she wants to revert it. If she were to do that…"

"That means Ben would be back, and Ben would marry her, not me," Sunny thought out loud.

"Yes. We can make you a queen *cough* But we need your help. Omnitrix-Albedo hasn't communicated with me in over a day *cough* My guess is that Gwendolyn somehow got him, and she is taking him to someone who will try to erase my mind from the Omnitrix *cough* and bring Ben's mind back," Albedo said, "I need you to figure out if that's really what happened, and if so, where they are going."

"I can try to figure it out. But… what happens to Gwen?" Sunny asked a bit reluctant. Even though she had her issues with Gwen, she didn't want her dead, "If you hurt her, believe me, our Grandma Verdona will make sure the wizards will never ally themselves with you."

"Maybe you can deal with that. She has been working with Charmcaster, a wanted criminal by the wizards. Can you get her permanently arrested based on that?"

"I sure can." Sunny was surprised about this new information as she could never see her goody two shoes cousin working with Charmcaster, but she was very glad to know that. Getting Gwen imprisoned, where the redhead would have to beg to First Lady Sunny for forgiveness, would be the perfect punishment.

Sunny knew what she had to do to figure out exactly what Gwen was planning. Ben's and Gwen's parents were all hiding in Grandma Verdona's mansion, so it would be easy to talk to them.

She went to Ben's parents, and said in a somber tone, "Mr. and Mrs. Tennyson, I'm really sorry about what happened to your son-"

"What? What happened to Ben?" Sandra asked in shock. Carl was just as livid. They knew it was something bad.

"Oh my, Gwen didn't tell you? Ben is… gone."

Sandra immediately started crying, but Carl's reaction was to pick up the magic mirror, just like Sunny wanted.

"Dad? Gwen? Are you guys there? Where's Ben? Where's my son?" Carl yelled at the mirror.

"Uncle Carl, Ben's … not available right now," Gwen answered the magic call.

"What do you mean not available? And your cousin Sunny told us he's gone. Please, tell us exactly what happened to our son," Sandra pleaded.

"It's a long story," Gwen said.

"Tell us everything, please," Sandra asked.

"_Yes, Gwendy, tell us everything,"_ Sunny smirked from a distance where she couldn't be seen in the mirror, but still could hear them.

* * *

"_There will be no war, at least for now," _Gar Red Wind told his daughter through one of the magic mirrors that Ben and Gwen taught them how to use, "_Kevin's men arrived and we gave them Ben's body. We told them the truth: that you fled the planet, and that we don't know where the Omnitrix is - after all, you didn't tell me where you were going,"_ Gar smirked, "_They think Gorvan killed Ben, stole the Omnitrix and ran. Kevin's forces_ _departed from Khoros and they will be going on a wild goose chase after Gorvan - who is locked up in a cell right here."_

"I'm relieved. I'd hate if my people had to fight a war and I wasn't there to lead them, like a real Overlordess should. Thank you, father." Looma turned off the magic mirror. Then she addressed the others, "I'm really sorry that my father had to hand over the body of our beloved to Kevin. I'm not comfortable with that either."

"It's to prevent a conflict. We understand. Kevin wouldn't have believed the story otherwise," Grandpa Max said.

"We have his mind and his DNA right here. The body won't be a problem." Gwen glanced at the Omnitrix and allowed herself to smile. "And I can definitely feel that his soul is with us too."

"I don't get why we don't just kill Albedo right now," Charmcaster said, looking at Four Arms unconscious body. "If when Ben died, Albedo took over, if we kill Albedo, Ben will probably come back again, right?"

"Unfortunately, we don't know if that's how it works." Gwen pointed out. "Maybe Albedo will simply come back again, or, worse, maybe it will break the Omnitrix and Ben will be lost forever. Let's not get ahead of ourselves and wait until my genius friend takes a look at the watch."

* * *

"Finally, we're almost there," Charmcaster said, as they saw a light blue planet and its two moons.

"Do we know if this ship can withstand lightning?" Grandpa Max frowned. "Kinet is full of dangerous electrical storms that happen literally all the time. They have lightning rods installed in the cities, but until we get there, we will be highly vulnerable."

"Don't worry," Gwen said, "Fergi will meet us on her ship high up, above the clouds and the lightning. We won't even have to go down there."

A while later, they entered Kinet's atmosphere and flew to the coordinates Fergi had given Gwen earlier. They found her ship and Gwen announced her presence through the comms, "Fergi, it's me, Gwen. I'm here with my friends."

"Welcome *cough* I'm Fergi's supervisor," *cough*," a male voice replied,** "**Dock your ship with ours and come onboard, please."

They did as they were told. Max stayed back in their ship, while Looma – carrying a still unconscious Four Arms Albedo –, Charmcaster and Gwen entered Fergi's ship.

"Hi," Gwen greeted the old red-eyed Galvan, "Where's Fergi?"

"She's down there, on Kinet's surface *cough* but don't worry, she told me everything, and I already know how to fix the problem *cough* I just need to use this device," the old Galvan was holding a metal disk, "It will take less than an hour."

Gwen suddenly had a bad feeling about that, though. "Let's wait until Fergi gets back here first," the redhead exclaimed.

"What? Why wait? *cough*," the old Galvan asked, gritting his teeth.

"Because my friend never mentioned you," Gwen answered honestly.

"As you wish *cough*." The old Galvan begrudgingly put the metal disk back in the pocket of his robe – however he pulled a grenade from the same pocket and threw it right at Four Arms face. The grenade released a small cloud of gas.

Charmcaster quickly grabbed the old Galvan and all the girls distanced themselves from the gas cloud, that thankfully didn't seem to be spreading.

"What the freak did you do?" Charmcaster yelled at the Galvan while Four Arms contorted in multiple spasms until he stopped moving, "Did you kill him?"

"Obviously," the Galvan replied, "but he will be fine."

A bright green light shone and in his place stood the human form of Ben Tennyson. Ben slowly opened his eyes and smiled. But that smile wasn't Ben's. It was Albedo's.

"Thanks for the reset," Ben-Albedo said with a dark grin as he stood up.

Well, that answered Charmcaster's earlier question of what would happen if Albedo were to be killed.

"If you try to turn into an alien, your friend here dies," Charmcaster warned, ready to snap the old Galvan's neck.

Ben-Albedo glanced at her, gritted his teeth and remained still.

"The A.I. in the Omnitrix… was a digitalized version of your mind. You're the real Albedo," Gwen said as realization dawned upon her about the identity of the old Galvan.

"We're both real," Old Albedo and Ben-Albedo said at the same time, "We're one and the same."

"What did you do to Fergi?" Gwen asked in anger.

"Your friend is fine *cough*," Old Albedo answered, "I put her to sleep comfortably in a sleeping pod. Albedo 2.0, get her, *cough* please. The pod is right behind that panel and the password is our birthday."

Ben-Albedo did as his original Galvan-self requested, and a pod emerged from the ship's wall. He grabbed a young Galvan girl that had a strand of bright blue hair and another strand of bluish-white hair from inside.

"Time to wake up." Ben-Albedo shook Fergi with both hands as he held a firm grip on her.

"Gwen?" Fergi slowly opened her eyes. "What's happening?"

"Let her go!" Gwen yelled.

"Let me go first *cough*, and then-" Old Albedo began.

"-I will let her go too," Ben-Albedo completed his sentence.

"If we do that, there will be nothing to stop him from killing us," Charmcaster warned, still holding the Old Galvan Albedo firmly.

Before they had to make a decision, Fergi took a quick glance behind and noticed Ben-Albedo was standing very close to the airlock. She smiled and yelled, "Voice command: OPEN AIRLOCK!"

Ben-Albedo – and Fergi – were immediately sucked outside.

"Fergi, NOOOO!" Gwen screamed. Looma quickly grabbed Gwen and Charmcaster to stop them from being dragged outside as well with two hands, while her two other hands held firmly onto panels for support.

Gwen was able to glance outside and to her great relief, she saw Fergi flying back to the ship thanks to rocket boots that she was wearing. However, Albedo 2.0 had turned into Stinkfly and was right behind her.

Gwen called Grandpa Max through the comms and yelled, "Grandpa, hit Stinkfly with our ships weapons now! Don't worry about hurting him!" Where she had just seen Albedo 2.0 die and come back to life, killing him was not a concern.

Grandpa blasted Stinkfly Albedo out of the sky. The villain fell through the clouds, while Fergi flew back to the ship and closed up the airlock again.

"Rocket boots. Standard Galvan explorer gear," Fergi said with a smirk.

Gwen brought the small female Galvan to her chest in a gentle hug, thankful that her friend was alive.

"It's nice to finally meet you in person." Gwen smiled. "Just wish the circumstances were better. Sorry about that."

"Nice to meet you too," Fergi replied with a smile of her own. "And if I didn't want a little risk, I wouldn't want to be an explorer, so don't worry about that."

Then Charmcaster joining in the hug, wrapping her hands around Gwen's waist from behind, "Don't mind me, Red. I just don't want to feel left out from such a tender moment," the silver-haired sorceress playfully said.

* * *

"We have been here for hours," Looma said as she walked from one side of the ship to the other, "We should be down there, hunting the other Albedo!"

"We can't face the enemy without enough intel," Grandpa Max said. Fergi was running tests on the metal disk that Old Albedo initially wanted to use on the Omnitrix and trying to figure out what that piece of tech was supposed to do.

"You're right, we should gather intel, but there's a faster way," Charmcaster grabbed the old Galvan Albedo that was tied up, "It's just us and you, tiny little helpless old guy. Better make yourself useful to us or I'll kill you – and unlike your other self, you can't come back from the dead."

"You don't understand. *cough* He is my way to come back from the dead *cough, cough* As long as he lives, I'll live. And it's obvious *cough* that I won't last much longer anyway like this. I'm ready to die."

"I don't buy it," Gwen said. Even though she didn't like the idea of Charmcaster killing someone in cold blood, she knew that if Albedo felt threatened it would benefit them. "Here's the thing that doesn't make sense: If you were so willing to die, Albedo 2.0 would have attacked us any way back when Charmcaster threatened to kill you. He wanted to preserve you, and you wanted to preserve yourself. The question is: why?"

"I finally figured this thing out!" Fergi yelled excitedly, "This disk was supposed to wipe out all the data stored in the Omnitrix. Every digital mind stored in it would be gone – Azmuth's, Ben's and even Albedo's."

Gwen turned to Old Albedo, "You would have to upload your own mind back to the Omnitrix again after using it. You obviously would need to be alive to do that. You might be ready to die, but not before you make sure the Omnitrix will be yours."

Old Albedo cursed under his breath.

"The mind upload thing… It just gave me an idea!" Fergi said, "We might be able to link somebody else's to the Omnitrix, so this person can rescue Ben from the prison Albedo created. However, this person would need to be physically close to the Omnitrix for it to work, and Albedo 2.0 would feel the intrusion. We'd need to keep him busy long enough for the person to rescue Ben."

"We will handle it. What tech do we need to get somebody else's mind inside the Omnitrix?" Gwen asked.

"A mind drive chip." Fergi's expression soured. "But it's very complicated and costly to make one. I don't think I could do it, at least not anytime soon."

"Hey, Albedo would need to have one of these mind drive chips to re-upload his mind to the Omnitrix, wouldn't he?" Charmcaster pointed out.

Unsurprisingly, Albedo's lips remained shut. But he wouldn't need to say anything. Fergi had an X-Ray device, and they quickly found out that Albedo indeed had a mind drive chip – he was carrying it literally inside his head.

"Which one of us has steady surgeon hands to open him up?" Charmcaster asked.

"This fragile body *cough* will perish if you attempt to remove my mind drive, but-"

"Not our problem," Charmcaster interrupted him.

"-But I will still triumph through my other self *cough* We have the Omnitrix and we are immortal and invincible," Old Albedo said.

"I used to think I was invincible too, but I learned the hard way that I wasn't," Looma said, "Your other self isn't invincible either. And we don't even need to defeat him, we just need to keep him busy for a while."

Old Albedo closed his eyes and paused to think. A few seconds later he finally said, "Rather than trying to destroy one another, why don't we call a truce and work together against our common enemy, President Kevin Levin? *cough, cough* I'm willing to give you what you want."

"The only thing we want right now is Ben back," Gwen said.

"And that's exactly *cough* what you will get," Old Albedo replied, "I can upload Benjamin's mind *cough* from inside the Omnitrix to a clone body."

"Everybody knows this practice is banned in every lawful planet across the universe," Fergi pointed out, "You would have to raise the clone for a while, and then override the clone's mind with Ben's mind, which would be essentially killing the clone. It's murder."

"Not if I do the same process that the Omnitrix does every single time the wielder uses it to transform or to turn back to normal *cough, cough* It stores the mind, rebuilds the body as a new life form in milliseconds and instantly writes the wielder's mind into it, before it can develop a mind of its own. *cough* I won't be overriding anyone's mind," he said.

"History says that Azmuth first invented this process to save his father's life," Fergi said, surprised, "I thought he was the only person in the universe who knew how to do this."

"History seem to conveniently forget *cough* that he and I used to be partners," old Albedo said, "I know how to do it too, if I have the resources for it *cough, cough*"

"You really think we're gullible enough to just believe your word?" Looma folded her arms.

"I understand your suspicions. Sometimes I had to commit necessary evils for the greater good. *cough, cough* I'm a man of science, but I'm familiar with the concept of magical oaths." Old Albedo glanced at Gwen and Charmcaster. "I would be willing to make our truce into a vow *cough* so you can trust I'll hold my end of the bargain and that I won't act against any of you as long as our truce holds. Or rather say, we would – I believe that the oath would be binding to both me and the other Albedo, *cough* since we both, in your terminology, share a soul."

"By the way, in this deal of yours, you – or the other Albedo, whatever – get to keep the Omnitrix?" Charmcaster asked.

"Of course. *cough* If you want it so badly, we can call off the truce and fight for it again after Kevin is gone," Albedo said, "But I'm willing to add a magical gene to Ben's new body so he will be a wizard, *cough* like you and Gwendolyn, as a way to make up for the loss of the Omnitrix."

"Team, we need to talk," Gwen said. They left Albedo tied up and went to the other side of the ship away from him, "Let's vote. Princess Looma, you first."

Looma took a deep breath. "I hate the idea of making a deal with Albedo, but Tetramand laws forbid us from killing defenseless people, even if they are enemies. If I have to open up Albedo's head to take the mind drive chip, I would be killing him, and I legally can't do that. However, I'm not obligated to _save_ a defenseless enemy, so if you decide to kill him, I'll just sit and watch, but my personal vote needs to be against it. I have to say yes to the deal."

"Wait," Charmcaster said, "I'm not trying to be rude, just curious. You guys throw prisoners to get killed by beasts in arenas. Can't see why killing Albedo now would be much of a problem."

"Our prisoners are not dying old men. We give them weapons and a chance to fight for their lives against the beasts. I admit it doesn't happen often, but if they survive, they are free," Looma replied.

Charmcaster shrugged. It didn't make much sense to her, but a culture is a culture.

"I think we should take the deal too," Gwen said, "That way, we won't have to kill anyone – something I'm uncomfortable with – nor fight anyone. I just want Ben back as soon as possible. I don't care about the Omnitrix. And Ben will get magic, so he will still be able to defend himself." The redhead bit her lip and then proceeded, "I have no doubts that Albedo is a terrible person, but I don't think he is as terrible as Kevin or Vilgax. We could use his help against them." Then Gwen glanced at Charmcaster. "At least he didn't ask for a marriage contract with my cousin. That would have made me say no."

"He actually did ask a cousin of yours to marry him," Charmcaster pointed out.

"Oh, yeah, almost forgot about Sunny. He can have her. They deserve each other." Gwen shrugged. Then she looked at Fergi, waiting for her to say something.

"I get to vote?" Fergi asked a little bit surprised, and Gwen nodded affirmatively, "Well... I could accept the idea of a truce with Albedo to defeat Kevin, but not with the Omnitrix involved. That's simply too much power to leave in the hands of an amoral person like him. I say we go and take it from him as soon as possible."

Next one to vote was Grandpa Max, "I don't see Ben letting Albedo keep the Omnitrix and the control of the Galactic Alliance in the end. I think a fight is inevitable. It will be now or later, and now is better. I mean, the only reason that Albedo offered a deal to us is because he is afraid that we will defeat his other self. We have a strategy, we just need to bring Ben's mind back, and we win. It will be a lot harder to defeat him later if Ben's mind is not in the Omnitrix anymore."

"It looks like your vote will be the tie breaker, Charmcaster," Gwen said.

* * *

**What should Charmcaster vote for?**

**\- Make the deal with Albedo.**

**\- Don't make the deal with Albedo.**

**(The poll will be on my profile; mobile users need to switch to desktop mode to vote)**

**Sorry for the Ben-less chapter, but as you ****can see, all roads lead to his return next chapter. Thanks to all who are favoriting/following/reviewing and thanks to Aurora Nightstar for proofreading this chapter.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Sorry for the long delay. I'd like to give special thanks to ****Light 8496, Overlord15 and AlienTokusatsuDuelistMangaGeek for always sending me PMs to keep me motivated to work on this story.**

**This chapter will be non-interactive because it's actually a "Part One". It was getting too long so I had to split it in two parts. Next chapter ("Part Two") will be interactive again.**

* * *

"No deal," Charmcaster said almost immediately.

"Why am I not surprised?" Gwen rolled her eyes, "At least let's do this as humanely as possible."

Before breathing the anesthetic gas that would render him unconscious, Old Albedo cursed everyone there, promising that they would suffer at the hands of his other self, the current wielder of the Omnitrix.

Fergi took a scalpel and prepared to open up Old Albedo's head to remove the mind drive chip from inside. She was about to begin, but her hands were shaking too much. Everyone knew that doing that surgery would kill Old Albedo. Gwen knew that her friend Fergi had never killed anyone before and that would be very hard on her. Gwen thought about trying to convince Fergi to change her vote, so they could just take the deal and wouldn't have to kill anyone.

"Let me do it," Charmcaster offered when she noticed Fergi's hesitation, "It wouldn't be the first time that I've killed someone."

"N-No," Fergi said, "I-It has to be me. Y-You-all are too big to do it right. You might make a cut too d-deep by a-accident, and we will lose the c-chip."

Albedo and Fergi were basically the same size, while everyone else was a giant compared to the Galvans. Fergi was indeed the most suitable person to do the 'surgery' with the necessary precision.

"Well, I can still make things easier for you," Charmcaster pressed her fingers against Old Albedo's neck and, a couple of minutes later, the computer that monitored Old Albedo's vital signs emitted a loud beep, indicating that he was dead, "There, I asphyxiated him for you, Fergi. You can open up his head without guilt now." She smiled and turned to the others, "One Albedo down, one to go. Do you see now the advantages of having a villain on the team? I get my hands dirty, so you don't have to. Did I hear a 'Thank you'? You're welcome, folks."

Gwen looked away upset, more with herself than with Charmcaster or anyone else. She knew that there was a way to get Ben back without having to commit murder - by taking up Albedo's offer - but she still sat back and allowed a death to happen. Grandpa Max placed a hand on her shoulder, "It's for the best, Pumpkin."

Princess Looma was indifferent. She couldn't kill Albedo because of the Tetramands' laws, but she wasn't the least bit upset or guilty over the fact that he was dead.

Charmcaster's action had the desired effect on Fergi, who now worked on the 'surgery' to remove the chip showing no more signs of hesitation.

Then Gwen's eyes widened when she remembered a very important - and awful - detail, "C-Charmcaster, w-what about your m-magical c-contract with Ben? You couldn't kill anyone without Ben's permission, otherwise you would suffer a-"

"How cute that you care about me, Red." Charmcaster pinched Gwen's cheek, who quickly pushed her hand away in response, "But you don't need to worry. Until we bring Ben back to the land of the living, that contract is null and void. Believe me, I can feel - or, in this case, not feel - whether I'm under a magical oath or not."

Less than an hour later, Fergi had finished reprogramming the chip. It wasn't very hard for her to do it, since Albedo had already set up the chip to be used to upload his own mind to the Omnitrix, so only a few modifications were necessary.

"All we need to do now is to implant the chip inside someone's head and bring this person close to Albedo 2.0. His or her mind will be connected to the Omnitrix, and it will be possible to rescue Ben from whatever mental prison that he's locked in, while the rest will keep Albedo distracted," the female Galvan explained, "I suggest for it to be Gwen. She knows Ben since they were born, right? So she is probably the most likely to be able to convince him to snap out of whatever illusion that Albedo has created to trap him."

"It's not a good idea to take Gwen out of the fight against Albedo," Charmcaster said, "Her power is literally good luck. And we're going to need a lot of luck. Why not Grandpa Max? He knows Ben since Ben was born too, right? And his presence won't make much of a difference in the fight at all."

"Hey, I've been fighting and winning impossible battles since before you were born, little girl," Grandpa Max protested.

Charmcaster opened her mouth, just about to make some sarcastic comment about Grandpa Max being a little bit old and out of shape these days, but she saw the death glare that Gwen sent her and stopped herself.

The silver-haired enchantress simply raised her arms and said, "Mr. Tennyson, I know and I'm sorry. I'd actually say Fergi should be the one to go since she's the physically weaker of us, but she doesn't even know Ben, so her chances of successfully getting him out of the simulation are slim. So, between a witch with luck powers, a witch who has an army of stone golems, a badass Tetramand warrior and a normal human, who do you think has less to offer in the fight, objectively?"

Grandpa Max sighed. He didn't like the idea of staying out of the fight against Albedo, but he understood the circumstances. Max laid on the stretcher, while Fergi started the surgical procedures to insert the mind drive chip in his head.

* * *

A few hours later, the "Omni-Team" awaited the arrival of Albedo 2.0, with their ship parked in a canyon (while Fergi's ship was floating high above in autopilot mode).

An energy-absorbing lightning rod - galvan tech - protected the spacecraft and the team from the impact of the lightning from the electrical storms, a constant event on the planet Kinet.

"Does Albedo 2.0 know where we are?" Looma asked.

"If I were him, I would have already thought of 14 different ways to track our current location. We Galvans are smart. He will find us," Fergi replied.

And, just like Fergi predicted, a few minutes later, it was possible to see a Kineceleran running towards the ship in a zigzag pattern, to avoid the lightning. It was Albedo 2.0.

When he got close enough, inside the ship Max Tennyson suddenly lost consciousness, the only reason why he didn't fall was because he was sitting. At the same time, outside the ship, Albedo fell to his knees for a moment, feeling the intrusion in his mind, but he soon got up.

"The mental connection via the chip worked," Fergi said, "Mr. Tennyson is in the Omnitrix now. Now we just need to buy time for him to bring Ben back."

"You killed him… my creator, my twin, the first Albedo. Maxwell Tennyson could only have got inside my head with a mind drive chip. A chip that you would have had to take from the first Albedo... You all will pay for his death!" Albedo yelled, and everybody inside was able to hear him. Then he changed into the form of a Pyronite and pointed his arms in the direction of the ship.

"He's going to destroy the ship! Everyone out, NOW!" Gwen shouted.

Looma, the strongest, carried the unconscious Max Tennyson in her arms, while Fergi, the smallest, jumped on Gwen's shoulder.

The only one left behind was the body of old Albedo, the original Galvan, who was caught in the explosion and reduced to ashes.

Pieces of the ship flew through the air, and smoke spread everywhere.

* * *

Grandpa Max found himself in a very large empty white room.

"Ben? Ben?" He yelled as he ran around, but the room seemed to be endless. "Where are you?"

"Hi, Mr. Tennyson." Max heard a voice calling him from behind. He turned around and saw a Galvan, "I am Azmuth. Or to be more accurate, an artificial intelligence created by Azmuth based on his own brain patterns, a digital version of Azmuth. To make things simpler, I am him."

"You do know what's happening, right? Your pal Albedo hijacked the Omnitrix, trapped my grandson's mind inside it, and is now on the loose out there!" Max growled in anger.

"I know that. And I'm really sorry. I am the most intelligent person in the galaxy when it comes to science, but not when it comes to people. I made a huge mistake when I trusted Albedo," Azimuth sighed and lowered his head, "When your grandson was accepted to wield the Omnitrix, Albedo's AI woke up and immediately tried to take over. I had to disable all the Artificial Intelligence functions to stop that from happening. That means, to deactivate him, I was forced to deactivate myself too."

"That's why you were there to check if Ben was or wasn't 'worthy' of the Omnitrix and then simply vanished after," Max whispered.

"Yes. Sorry your grandson had to figure things out the hard way, alone," Azmuth replied in a regretful tone, "My plan was to be there and guide him throughout the entire process."

"If you and Albedo were deactivated, how did he take over now?" Max folded his arms.

"When Ben's arm was cut off, the Omnitrix rebooted. We both went back online, and once again Albedo seized the opportunity to take control. This time, he was able to get in charge before I could stop him," Azmuth explained.

"And how can we bring Ben back?" Max asked.

"He's stuck in a simulation and his memories of the real world were corrupted. But if he wishes to get out of the simulation, really wishes, he will be back in control immediately," Azmuth said.

"Did you try to get inside the simulation and tell him that his world isn't real?" Max arched an eyebrow.

"I can't; Albedo blocked me. The most I could do is try to send him messages through holo-phone calls, but he didn't listen," Azmuth let out a heavy sigh, "But you… You're like a virus for which Albedo has no defenses. I think I might be able to replace the simulation version of you with the actual you. But I have to warn you, it will be very hard for you because-"

"Skip the talk. I know what I have to do now. Just send me in. There is no time to lose," Max demanded.

"Alright," Azmuth touched Max, his face frowned as he tried to focus and a few seconds later, Max disappeared.

* * *

Charmcaster unleashed her stone golems against Albedo, but he quickly turned into a Vaxasaurian and grew in size, "In these hours I was away, I've been unlocking some new alien forms," Albedo laughed as he grabbed two golems and crushed one against the other, destroying both of them.

Gwen focused on activating her aura of luck. Violent electrical storms were a constant in Kinet if she was lucky enough… It worked, and lightning after lightning struck Albedo repeatedly until he fell down.

Gwen had little time to celebrate, though, because the Omnitrix rebooted itself and Albedo rose again, now a Petrosapien and very mad at Gwen. He created two walls of crystal, one in the left and one in the right, to isolate he and Gwen from the rest. Gwen gasped as she realized what he had done and tried to climb the wall to escape, but Albedo switched to a Kineceleran and reached her before she could finish climbing. He put her in a chokehold and Gwen started to lose consciousness.

"No more good luck for your team. Unfortunately, we don't want to upset a high-ranking witch like Verdona, so you get to live," Albedo said and then whispered somberly in her ear, "But I will make sure to kill your beloved Grandpa Max with extreme prejudice."

After Gwen passed out, the crystal wall was broken with a few punches from Princess Looma, who charged at Albedo. Still as a Kineceleran, he didn't have much trouble dodging her attacks, but he knew time was not on his side. He couldn't let his opponents play cat and mouse with him.

"Princess, let me give you a preview of how I'm going to win your hand in marriage later," he changed into a Necrofriggian and opened his mouth letting out a devastating freezing breath that made Looma shiver and paralyzed her momentarily, "Your species has a remarkable resistance to fire and heat, but not so much against ice and cold…"

He then changed into a Tetramand form and took advantage of the fact that Looma had yet to recover from his freezing breath. He was able to knock her out with a series of punches and kicks.

Another group of Charmcaster's golems ganged up on Albedo and he cursed under his breath. He knew he would win - it was obvious that someone with full control of the Omnitrix was unstoppable - the only issue was whether or not he could do it before the intruder had the chance to restore Ben Tennyson's consciousness.

* * *

Max woke up in a large and comfortable king-sized bed in a fancy bedroom. He stood up and stared at the 'window'. From there, he had a perfect view of Earth; it wasn't hard to deduce that he was on the moon. He had been there before.

"Grandsmith's moon hotel... I told Ben and Gwen many stories about this place, where I spent my honeymoon," he spoke to himself.

"And I'm glad our second honeymoon is being just as amazing as the first one," Max heard a familiar female voice and froze as he saw his wife coming from the bathroom. _His wife that had passed away six years ago._

"M-Mary?" Max' voice cracked.

"You look worried, honey. Did something happen?" she asked. Max just ran to Mary and gave her a long and tight hug. He could breathe in her scent, and he knew it wasn't real, but it felt real to him… He didn't want to let go of her or end the hug. Then Max remembered that he had a mission. Take Ben back. His granddaughter was out there, facing an overpowered megalomaniacal Galvan, and she was counting on him.

"I'm so sorry, Mary… Where is Ben?" Max asked.

"You know where he is," she rolled her eyes, "In the bedroom across the hall with Gwen and Hope. Why?"

"I need to talk to him. He can't stay here like this anymore..." Max bit his lip and pulled away from the hug hesitantly. He took a few steps to leave the bedroom, but Mary grabbed his arm.

"Honey, I know that our grandson, our granddaughter and another girl in a romantic relationship is, well, very weird to say the least, but we know they're happy, we promised we would accept their decision and they're taking all the necessary precautions. Let the kids enjoy their day. And let's enjoy ours," she smiled to him and her smile was just like he remembered.

It took all of Max's willpower to pull away from Mary's tight grip on his arm, "I'm sorry. It's really urgent."

Without looking back, Max went to Ben's room and beeped at the door front panel, ringing the buzzer inside the room. After beeping two times and getting no answer, he simply pressed his finger on the button until Ben could no longer ignore the constant buzzing. Then the metallic door opened and revealed a Ben with messy hair wearing only a robe.

"Grandpa, I'm in the middle of a thing here…" Ben scratched his head, "Can you come back in another hour please?"

"No. We need to talk now," Max said.

"Ok, what is it?" Ben folded his arms.

Max froze. He couldn't simply tell Ben the truth without evidence to back it up or Ben wouldn't believe him, and the simulation versions of Gwen, Hope and Mary would certainly try to convince Ben that Max had gone mad.

"Grandpa?" Ben asked, trying to get Max's attention as he was immersed in thoughts.

"You have to see this for yourself. Right now," Max said in a stern voice.

"Ok...," Ben thought the sudden convocation was a bit weird, but agreed to do as Grandpa asked, "I will just put on some clothes and go with you."

* * *

"And that's the last of them," Albedo said, as a Tetramand, as he finished crushing another golem.

Distracted by the stone creatures, he failed to see Charmcaster enchanting a large and sharp piece of debris from the destroyed ship to jump straight into him. Albedo groaned in excruciating pain as the huge piece of metal impaled his chest and fell dead on the ground soon after.

"Take that, you son of a bitch."

Charmcaster knew the Omnitrix would reboot itself and bring him back soon after, so she ran towards him, theorizing that if she could touch the Omnitrix symbol, she could be able to use her power of turning inanimate objects into life to turn the Omnitrix itself against Albedo - she had no idea of what the results could be of mixing magic with highly advanced technology, but she was desperate enough to try anything at this point.

She didn't have a chance to try though.

When Charmcaster was just about to touch it, the Omnitrix rebooted itself and Albedo turned into a Florauna. He grabbed her by the neck and wrapped her up in tight vines.

"You know, the Wizards will prefer if I bring you in alive for questioning and for you to face their judgement, but alive doesn't mean unharmed, you worthless waste of organic matter," Albedo smacked her across the face out of spite and his wooden hand left a flesh wound on the silver-haired witch's cheek before he choked her into unconsciousness.

Albedo looked at Max Tennyson. His victory was at hand… Then he saw Fergi flying with her jetpack towards him. She fired her Galvan-designed gun and it hurt like hell. In a moment of anger, Albedo considered killing her.

Instead, he decided to wrap her up in vines too, "You're lucky that it's hard to find Galvans across the universe since most of us are hiding behind that planetary shield in our home world, so I'm not going to kill you. With all wives from filthy inferior species that I'll be forced to marry for political purposes, it will definitely be a comfort to keep a female of my own species around," he said with a eerie smile as she lost consciousness.

Albedo walked towards the defenseless unconscious body of Max as he changed into a pyronite, "I know there are quicker ways to kill you, Maxwell Tennyson, but since I need to make sure the mind drive chip in your head is completely destroyed, turning you into ashes is the most guaranteed method," he said as he stretched his hands and unleashed a torrent of fire.

* * *

"Spacewalking is pretty cool..." Ben said as he jumped around enjoying the lower gravity environment. Both were wearing spacesuits so they could breathe in the Moon of course, "...But why not bring Grandma and the girls too? Is this spacewalk an excuse for a man to man talk?"

"Not exactly, but it's an excuse for me to talk to you about something really important," Max said, a bit uneasy, "The truth is, this world is not real."

"What do you mean?" Ben asked, very confused.

"This is a simulated world running inside the Omnitrix and you're trapped inside it. You have to break free," Max blurted out, "Gwen and Charmcaster - I mean, Hope - are out there in danger and they need you right now."

"What?" Ben blinked a few times. The revelation was like litting up a light inside his brain and he felt a huge headache, "I… I… don't know… That sounds crazy, Grandpa."

"We can't stay here, Ben. We need to come back to the real world now," Max said.

Ben dropped to his knees feeling the headache getting worse, "I think I need to see a doctor."

"Your mind is resisting, but you have to push through, Ben. For Gwen. And Hope. And Looma. And the universe."

"Looma?" The name also brought Ben some weird flashes, memories that weren't his own… or were they? "Grandpa, please, stop. We need to come back and talk to Grandma, Gwen and Hope. I think we're both going crazy. I'd say we need a vacation, but we are already on vacation and-"

"I'm sorry." Grandpa Max caught Ben by surprise as he grabbed Ben's helmet and took it off.

"Grandpa…" Ben grabbed for his throat, gasping for air, "Why… did… you… do… that?"

"It's a simulation. I'm pretty sure you can't really die here," Max said.

"You're_ pretty sure_?" Ben yelled.

"See?" Grandpa Max smirked, "You're just fine. Because none of this is real. Now you have to wake up."

Memories started to flood through Ben's brain, and he let out a deep sigh, "Ok, I'm ready to go back to the real world now."

Nothing happened.

"Azmuth said you need to really wish for it to happen," Max said.

"So, I'm not wishing hard enough?" Ben folded his arms, "How do I do that? Any magic words I should say?"

"Tell me, do you really want to go?" Grandpa Max asked, then he bit his lip and a tear fell from his eye, "Because I don't know if I do. My wife is alive here. Out there, she isn't."

"I miss Grandma Mary," Ben sat down on the lunar ground, "I miss not having the weight of the world on my shoulders, or on my left wrist. The watch is great, but now people look up to me as if I were a messiah, and I know I'll just end up disappointing everyone in the end. I have no idea what I'm supposed to do."

"Do your best," Max ran his hand through Ben's hair, "I'm sure that-" then all of a sudden, he fell to his knees, "It burns…"

"Grandpa, what's happening?" Ben asked in a panic.

"Not here… Out there… I think… It's Albedo…" Max said, struggling to talk, "He got me… I'm dying…"

Ben closed his eyes and desperately wished to leave as the world around him vanished.

* * *

**Author's notes**

Thanks to Aurora Nightstar for beta-reading this, and thanks to all who are favoriting/following/reviewing.

PS: If anyone here is a fan of "The Gifted" (The TV show based on the X-Men), please let me know through a PM or a review, I have ideas for fanfics about it and would like to know if anyone would be interested.


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